Reported for Statewide by Brad Penner

It's a dry year, but the soybeans in Merv Riecken's field are green. They don't need so much rain. They use water underneath the field.
[Merv Riecken] When they start pumping and they take that underground water away, we'll just dry up.
Merv is talking about the Metropolitan Utilities District. They supply water to Omaha and the surrounding communities and they're Merv's new neighbors.
They own this land directly across the road right here for a full mile and from here to the river, and we're on this side of the road directly adjacent to them.
It wouldn't bother Merv so much if M.U.D. plans to farm the land, but that's not so. Little flags mark the spots where wells will be built.
[Riecken] There's one right down over there a ways and there's one down there behind that big tree down there. I think they're going to have nine wells right here.
Test wells already dot some of the Saunders County land owned by M.U.D. They plan to eventually build 26 wells in Saunders County and 16 across the Platte River in Douglas County.
[Gerald Radek, M.U.D. General Manager] The metropolitan Omaha area is growing very rapidly. A lot of economic development here. Our responsibility is to provide a safe water supply for the growing metropolitan and Omaha area.
[Grant Porter] M.U.D. has applied for a permit to pump 104 million gallons of water per day maximum, up to 19 billion gallons of water per year.
That's a lot of water, but is it too much? Grant Porter believes it is. He is the deputy county attorney in Saunders County, and he is doing everything he can to stop the well field.
[Porter] We have complaints, the County does, filed with the Department of Water Resources.
Saunders County Commissioner Doris Karloff was surprised when she found out about plans for the well field late last Summer. What was your first reaction?
[Doris Karloff] Concern for the area farmers and what it was going to do to the subsoil moisture and those farmers that do farm in that area.
When a well pumps water, the water table is lowered around it. When a lot of wells pump from the same aquifer, the water table is lowered even more. As you get further away from the well field, the drawdown is less. Farmers near M.U.D.'s planned well field count on sub-irrigation for their crops. The water table is so high that the roots of a corn plant can reach down into the aquifer. If new wells pump enough water, the water table will drop out of reach at the roots.
[Chad Karloff] I'm kind of on the edge where we're in the range of that one- to ten-foot drop. Sometimes in August -- June, July, August, that one to two feet can make a difference between a crop and not having a crop. I understand that they have a lot of engineers that study this type of material but I don't think they really know what's going to happen.
Chad Karloff is Doris Karloff's son. If he can't count on water from below, he will have to depend on timely rains or expensive irrigations to grow a crop. To him, it seems like he ought to be able to keep and use the water that naturally resides under his land.
[Chad Karloff] They're going outside and pumping water farther and farther away from the acres they actually own. That concerns me. If I had a sandpit and I was digging underneath and grabbing the sand and gravel from underneath my neighborhood who is not part of the sandpit, wouldn't that be wrong? They're doing the same thing. They're coming in saying I own this section but I'm going to pump the water out for two to three, four miles and draw it into my place.
[Mike Thomas] The water is just being taken from us without any compensation for us or any thought of us at all.
Farmer Mike Thomas doesn't think it makes much sense.
[Thomas] Some of the ground I farm was homesteaded. It's been in the family five generations, you know. Hate to just lose the value of it overnight practically.
But Tom Wurtz of the Metropolitan Utilities District says they'll pay farmers for losses they cause.
[Tom Wurtz, M.U.D. General Counsel] The best case scenario that we're all aiming for is that when this plant goes online and we begin pumping, none of these things are going to happen. It's not in our best interest to draw down our neighboring farmers' wells. Do you know why? We do not want our rate payers to have to pay for that because we would be liable for that.
The Omaha metro area is growing toward the west. The Metropolitan Utilities District needs to provide water for these new customers. General Manager Gerald Radek says their plan makes sense.
[Radek] You can see the city is growing away from our existing plant, and to move water from here all the way around here is very energy intensive.
Right now, most of Omaha's water comes from the Missouri River. It's run through the Florence Treatment Plant to make it safe to drink.
[Kevin Tobin, M.U.D. Water Projects] During the Spring and Summer months, the Missouri River is a rather turbid river so we have to treat that water to get it clear. That's as opposed to a Platte River source which is really a groundwater source so we take advantage of the natural filtration so the water coming into the treatment plant is already very clear to begin with.
M.U.D. could build another plant along the Missouri River to get the water they need. Kevin Tobin says it would be far more expensive to do that.
[Tobin] The estimate for annual cost just for chemicals is in the neighborhood of a half million to three quarters of a million dollars more to treat a Missouri River source than a Platte River source.
M.U.D. already has a well field along the Platte south of Omaha, but Tobin says that aquifer isn't big enough to provide all the additional water they need. Plus he says the Platte West well field will save them more than a million dollars a year in energy costs.
[Tobin] That's one of the big expenses of a facility sited on the Missouri is getting water to where we need it which is in western Omaha and the western reaches of Douglas County. That's where Platte West really shines. It is located where we need the water and it's at a higher elevation so our energy costs are significantly less.
It all made sense to the people at M.U.D. They had a good, clean source of water that would meet their growing needs. In 1993 and 1994 they applied to the State for permits to build the well field. At that time Michael Jess was director of the Department for Water Resources now known as the Department of Natural Resources. He says they published notices of M.U.D.'s application and waited for reaction.
[Michael Jess] In this particular case, nobody stepped forward and so it was what the department would consider as an uncontested application. And ultimately then did get approved.
The order of approval said there was enough water to meet the request and the application was in the public interest. Jess signed it December 10th, 1998.
[Porter] I just don't think people were aware of it.
Porter wants the State to reopen the permit process. He points to a provision in the State Constitution that gives agricultural uses preference over industrial uses when it comes to water.
[Porter] By M.U.D.'s own figures, 40-50% of their water that they would pump of the 19 billion gallons per year would be used for industrial and commercial uses.
University of Nebraska Law Professor Norm Thorson says preference in the Constitution apply to surface water and it isn't clear how they might affect this case.
[Norm Thorson] With respect to groundwater, any overlying landowner has a right to make a reasonable use of the water found beneath their property on land that they own. So there's no priority in that sense with respect to groundwater.
Porter also claims M.U.D. needs a special permit to move water from the Platte River basin to the Missouri River basin.
[Wurtz] I think that issue is kind of being bandied about by some people that just basically don't want it in their backyard but we think it's a rather hollow argument.
[Thorson] The Inner Basin Transfer Statute applies clearly to someone who comes in and wants to divert surface waters for use in a different basin. It's not clear that it would apply to groundwaters or apply to a municipality which has its own separate statute covering municipal use.
Grant Porter will raise other objections with the Department of Natural Resources if he gets a chance.
[Porter] Right now we want a hearing on the merits, not just a hearing to brush us under the rug and just paper over this problem. These laws are on the books and they have to obey them.
[Wurtz] Our position is pretty simple. We have gone to the State of Nebraska Department of Water Resources and have secured all of the necessary permits that we need at the State level for the well field and that's what they've told us.
That's hard to accept for those who believe Saunders County water will be used for green lawns and golf courses in Omaha.
Their livelihood doesn't depend on whether their lawn is green or not. Mine depends on whether my corn is green or not.
[Doris Karloff] Is it our water since it's in Saunders County, or is it whoever can purchase the property and then claim that aquifer that's underneath?
[Wurtz] But we're not stealing anyone's water. Counties don't own the water. M.U.D. serves a lot of people, as Gerry said a third of the population. We, frankly, are entitled to use that water. It's not Saunders County's water just because the Platte River happens to touch that county or the land that M.U.D. rate payers own happens to be in that county. That just isn't the case.
Wurtz says the Omaha area needs more water now and delays could be critical in the future. M.U.D. still needs a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers before they can build their Platte West well field. Hearings on an environmental impact study will happen later this year. Saunders County opponents will fight against that permit and continue to look to the State and potentially the courts for relief. It's about the only hope Merv Riecken has left.
They're so big and they have so much power that I don't think -- I don't know. I don't think you got prayers as one individual.

Captioning by Nebraska Captioning Center, Lincoln, Nebraska .