Looking upstream at Spencer Hydro Facility after the flood. The Niobrara River used to flow through the structure and now goes around it.
Supporting Nebraska’s NRDs in Their Flood Response
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Joshua Dill: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position. Dean Edson: I used to farm corn and soybeans in central Nebraska, and I also had a livestock operation with about 150 sows and about 200 cows and calves. I farmed with my father until the mid-1980s, and then left the business during the agriculture crisis and moved to Lincoln. I went back to school, got a degree, and worked for the Farm Bureau for 11 years as director of state governmental relations. I’ve been with the NRDs as their executive director for the last 21 years.
24 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER
Joshua Dill: Please give us an overview of what Nebraska’s NRDs do. Dean Edson: Nebraska’s NRDs are unique in the country. Back in 1972, we merged 154 political subdivisions that worked in water management, soil conservation, or waste management, and turned them into NRDs. There are 23 of them in the state of Nebraska, with their boundaries determined by river basin boundaries rather than by county boundaries. The NRDs manage the natural resources within their boundaries for water quality and quantity, soil erosion, wildlife management, flood control, and recreation. The NRDs are governed by locally elected board members. Joshua Dill: Please tell us about the work that the NRDs do in flood prevention and control. Dean Edson: The districts own or operate over 700 floodcontrol structures in the state. They work closely with local communities to identify areas that need flood protection and work to build dams or levees needed to protect communities, farmland, and businesses. It is a grassroots approach to flood control. Local people make decisions about the types of structures they need and where they need them. All the meetings that we hold are subject to Nebraska’s Open
PHOTO COURTESY OF GOVERNOR PETE RICKETTS AND THE NEBRASKA STATE PATROL.
he state of Nebraska has a unique system of 23 natural resources districts (NRDs) that handle water quantity and quality issues, soil-erosion control, flood prevention, and other environmental concerns across the state. The Nebraska Association of Resources Districts (NARD) is the trade association representing the NRDs, primarily before the state legislature and executive branch agencies. In this interview, Dean Edson, executive director of NARD, speaks with Municipal Water Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill about the NRDs’ response to the catastrophic flooding that recently hit Nebraska and what NARD has done to support them.
