General Manager Jasper Fanning of the Upper Republican Natural Resources District
A pivot irrigator in Dundy County, Nebraska.
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he Upper Republican Natural Resources District (URNRD), located in far southwestern Nebraska, is one of the 23 natural resources districts (NRDs) that handle water quantity and quality services, among many other environmental functions, across the state. In this interview, URNRD General Manager Jasper Fanning tells us about how the district is addressing nitrate contamination, aquifer depletion, toxic blue-green algae, and other local issues. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about the URNRD. Jasper Fanning: All NRDs were formed statutorily in Nebraska in 1972. Essentially, Nebraska legislatively combined a large number of special purpose districts, such
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Irrigation Leader: Which services make up a majority of the URNRD’s work? Jasper Fanning: Generally, NRDs are involved in water quantity and quality management, flood control, and parks and recreation. Most of our work, due to the resources issues that we face, is in the water quantity area and to some degree in the water quality area. About one-third of our district is irrigated. The district covers about 1.2 million acres total, so about 450,000 acres is irrigated. We have some groundwater decline issues that started with irrigation development in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We allocate groundwater to all the irrigators and commercial water users. More recently, we have put a framework in place to deal with nitrate issues in our district. Irrigation Leader: What are the main crops grown in your district? irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE URNRD.
Jasper Fanning: I came to be the general manager of the URNRD around 2003, when it had a vacancy. My background is in agricultural economics, which is resource allocation and natural resource economics. I have a PhD in economics. Unlike the case with most other NRD managers, being manager was my first role in an NRD. I had never worked for an NRD prior to that.
as groundwater conservation districts, soil conservation districts, and solid waste districts. It originally formed 24 NRDs, two of which later merged, giving Nebraska a total of 23 today. As its name implies, the URNRD is at the upper end of the Republican basin in Nebraska. It comprises Dundy, Chase, and Perkins Counties, which border Kansas and Colorado.
