Water is one of our most precious resources. With floods, hurricanes, and droughts occurring more frequently, people are becoming more aware of the fragile planet we live on and taking action to lessen their environmental impact. Urban agriculture has become a popular solution and positive tool that can be used to not only strengthen Lincoln’s […]

Nebraska irrigates more farmland than any state in the nation, and a lot of that water is pumped from underground. A new program for sharing Nebraska’s groundwater may help both farmers and endangered species.

Nebraska irrigates more farmland than any state in the nation, and a lot of that water is pumped from underground. A new program for sharing Nebraska’s groundwater may help both farmers and endangered species.

Because groundwater is so important, water quality scientists spend a lot of time studying how contaminants can get into the aquifer, deep underground. Dan Snow says growing up, he wasn’t planning on being a scientist.

While staring at the Platte River this past week, I grappled with the severity of the drought in California and the mandatory restrictions of water use there. It was intangible, a concept I just couldn’t grasp while watching the girth of surface water flooding Nebraska this year. California farmers are losing crops because there isn’t […]

While surface water development led the early history of irrigation in Nebraska, it became common for farmers to tap the wealth of water below ground beginning in the 1930s.

Wet meadows are groundwater-fed wetlands within larger grassland environments. Along the Platte…

Water loss through porous canals and ditches has always been an issue for irrigators, so districts and farmers alike have lined or sealed the waterways to reduce loss. “We can’t afford to lose a whole lot of water out of the canal,” Busch said, but “sealing a canal is a catch-22 because that water that comes out of them canals does replenish our groundwater system.”

Nebraska’s capital city has a strong economy, a well-respected university and a vibrant downtown. But from a water supply standpoint, Lincoln has always been a little precarious.

Across the semi-arid landscape of the Nebraska Sandhills, ranchers have utilized the power of wind since the settlement period more than a century ago. Windmills are used to pump groundwater from the underlying aquifer to the surface where it is stored in stock tanks for livestock.