The board voted 9-3 to deliver up to 15 inches per acre over a 10-week irrigation season next year. Normal deliveries are 18 inches over 12 weeks. Central has delivered either 6.7 or 8.4 inches/acre in each of the past five irrigation seasons.

Directors Martin Mueller, Dave Rowe and Robert Dahlgren cast dissenting votes on the increased allocation. Directors Robert Garrett, Roger Olson and Neal Hoff were absent.

The board and staff analyzed projections of how different options would affect storage levels at Lake McConaughy before deciding to increase the allocation, but retained the shorter delivery season.

Central also intends to use Elwood Reservoir for irrigation operations next year for the first time since 2004. Central will begin diverting some water into Elwood Reservoir this fall and then fill it to operating levels next spring prior to irrigation season. Water from the reservoir is used to supplement diversions into the E65 Canal system in Gosper and Phelps counties.

The increased allocation is possible because of improvements in storage levels at Lake McConaughy, which is almost 16 feet higher in elevation than it was at this time last year. Central civil engineer Cory Steinke attributed the gains to conservation efforts, higher than normal flows in the South Platte River (which Central could divert instead of releasing water from Lake McConaughy), wetter than normal conditions above Lake McConaughy last spring, and a waiver of winter releases required by Central's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license. The lake is projected to reach a peak of just over 1 million acre-feet of water in storage next spring, the highest peak since 2002.

Steinke added that carryover storage conditions in U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs in Wyoming are much improved from recent years, which is a good sign for water supplies next spring. However, he said, a forecasted development of an El Niño weather pattern may reduce the snowpack accumulation in Wyoming and Colorado this winter and next spring. Snowmelt from the mountains is the primary source of water for the Wyoming reservoirs and the North Platte River.

The board and staff are also analyzing new irrigation rate and scheduling options for next year. Irrigation Division Manager Dave Ford said meetings with irrigation customers are currently being planned for sometime in November to discuss the options. Dates and times for the meetings will be announced later.

In other activity at Tuesday's meeting:

• Natural Resources Manager Mike Drain reported that Central received a letter from Michael G. McDonald of McDonald Morrissey Associates, a groundwater hydrology firm in Virginia, concurring with the conclusions of a study by Lytle Water Solutions on the impact of groundwater pumping on flows in the North Platte River.

McDonald concluded that the consumption of groundwater by irrigated crops in the North Platte River basin has reduced the flow in the river by approximately 100,000 acre-feet per year and that the reductions are expected to continue for many years into the future at the present rate of groundwater withdrawals.

McDonald is a renowned groundwater hydrologist and the co-creator of the MODFLOW computer code and model that is widely used to simulate groundwater flow, recharge, and interaction with surface water.

He wrote that he arrived at his conclusion after reviewing the Lytle study, reports by the Nebraska Cooperative Hydrology Study (COHYST), and conducting personal investigations.

Central asked McDonald to review the independent studies and scientific data associated with the issue, said Drain, and "his conclusions confirm our position that depletions are occurring at a substantial rate."

"It is difficult to overstate the importance of this opinion from a legal perspective," said Mike Klein, Central's legal counsel. "It is significant when an expert of his stature can provide testimony on your behalf as part of whatever type of proceeding you may choose to pursue."

• The board voted 9-3 to approve payments totaling $124,415.96 to the Johnson Lake Sanitary Improvement District for connection fees associated with several tracts of Central-owned property at the lake. The tracts or properties include the lake's meeting room facility; the Emergency Medical Services building; a mobile home park; and property with development potential on North Point, west of Bass Bay, west of Idle Hours, and north of the meeting facility.

Voting against the payments were directors Dahlgren, Geoff Bogle, and Doyle Lavene.

• The board approved a contract with Split Rock Studios of Arden Hills, Minn., to construct an exhibit about the use of water for power production at the Lake McConaughy Visitor Center. The $43,526 cost of the exhibit, which is the final display to be developed in the facility's Water Interpretive Center, will be shared equally with the Nebraska Public Power District.

• Central will hold public meetings to explain changes and solicit comments on revisions to its Land and Shoreline Management Plan. Meetings are scheduled for Sept. 9 at the Grey Goose Lodge in Ogallala; Sept. 10 at the Super 8 Motel in Gothenburg; and Sept. 11 at the Holiday Inn Express in Lexington. All meetings start at 7 p.m. local time.