For purposes of the Municipal and Rural Domestic Ground Water Transfers Permit Act, the Nebraska Ground Water Management and Protection Act, and sections 46-601 to 46-613.02 , 46-636 , 46-637 , and 46-651 to 46-655 , unless the context otherwise requires:
(1)Person means a natural person, a partnership, a limited liability company, an association, a corporation, a municipality, an irrigation district, an agency or a political subdivision of the state, or a department, an agency, or a bureau of the United States;
(2)Ground water means that water which occurs in or moves, seeps, filters, or percolates through ground under the surface of the land;
(3)Contamination or contamination of ground water means nitrate nitrogen or other material which enters the ground water due to action o
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For purposes of the Municipal and Rural Domestic Ground Water Transfers Permit Act, the Nebraska Ground Water Management and Protection Act, and sections 46-601 to 46-613.02 , 46-636 , 46-637 , and 46-651 to 46-655 , unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) Person means a natural person, a partnership, a limited liability company, an association, a corporation, a municipality, an irrigation district, an agency or a political subdivision of the state, or a department, an agency, or a bureau of the United States;
(2) Ground water means that water which occurs in or moves, seeps, filters, or percolates through ground under the surface of the land;
(3) Contamination or contamination of ground water means nitrate nitrogen or other material which enters the ground water due to action of any person and causes degradation of the quality of ground water sufficient to make such ground water unsuitable for present or reasonably foreseeable beneficial uses;
(4) Department means the Department of Water, Energy, and Environment;
(5) Chief Water Officer means the Chief Water Officer of the Department of Water, Energy, and Environment;
(6) District means a natural resources district operating pursuant to Chapter 2, article 32;
(7) Illegal water well means (a) any water well operated or constructed without or in violation of a permit required by the Nebraska Ground Water Management and Protection Act, (b) any water well not in compliance with rules and regulations adopted and promulgated pursuant to the act, (c) any water well not properly registered in accordance with sections 46-602 to 46-604 , or (d) any water well not in compliance with any other applicable laws of the State of Nebraska or with rules and regulations adopted and promulgated pursuant to such laws;
(8) To commence construction of a water well means the beginning of the boring, drilling, jetting, digging, or excavating of the actual water well from which ground water is to be withdrawn;
(9) Management area means any area so designated by a district pursuant to section 46-712 or 46-718 , by the Director of Water, Energy, and Environment pursuant to section 46-725 , or by the Interrelated Water Review Board pursuant to section 46-719 . Management area includes a control area or a special ground water quality protection area designated prior to July 19, 1996;
(10) Management plan means a ground water management plan developed by a district and submitted to the Chief Water Officer for review pursuant to section 46-711 ;
(11) Ground water reservoir life goal means the finite or infinite period of time which a district establishes as its goal for maintenance of the supply and quality of water in a ground water reservoir at the time a ground water management plan is adopted;
(12) Board means the board of directors of a district;
(13) Acre-inch means the amount of water necessary to cover an acre of land one inch deep;
(14) Subirrigation or subirrigated land means the natural occurrence of a ground water table within the root zone of agricultural vegetation, not exceeding ten feet below the surface of the ground;
(15) Best management practices means schedules of activities, maintenance procedures, and other management practices utilized for purposes of irrigation efficiency, to conserve or effect a savings of ground water, or to prevent or reduce present and future contamination of ground water. Best management practices relating to contamination of ground water may include, but not be limited to, irrigation scheduling, proper rate and timing of fertilizer application, and other fertilizer and pesticide management programs. In determining the rate of fertilizer application, the district shall consult with the University of Nebraska or a certified crop advisor certified by the American Society of Agronomy;
(16) Point source means any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including, but not limited to, any pipe, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, vessel, other floating craft, or other conveyance, over which the department has regulatory authority and from which a substance which can cause or contribute to contamination of ground water is or may be discharged;
(17) Allocation, as it relates to water use for irrigation purposes, means the allotment of a specified total number of acre-inches of irrigation water per irrigated acre per year or an average number of acre-inches of irrigation water per irrigated acre over any reasonable period of time;
(18) Rotation means a recurring series of use and nonuse of irrigation wells on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis;
(19) Water well has the same meaning as in section 46-601.01 ;
(20) Surface water project sponsor means an irrigation district created pursuant to Chapter 46, article 1, a reclamation district created pursuant to Chapter 46, article 5, or a public power and irrigation district created pursuant to Chapter 70, article 6;
(21) Beneficial use means that use by which water may be put to use to the benefit of humans or other species;
(22) Consumptive use means the amount of water that is consumed under appropriate and reasonably efficient practices to accomplish without waste the purposes for which the appropriation or other legally permitted use is lawfully made;
(23) Dewatering well means a well constructed and used solely for the purpose of lowering the ground water table elevation;
(24) Emergency situation means any set of circumstances that requires the use of water from any source that might otherwise be regulated or prohibited and the agency, district, or organization responsible for regulating water use from such source reasonably and in good faith believes that such use is necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare, including, if applicable, compliance with federal or state water quality standards;
(25) Good cause shown means a reasonable justification for granting a variance for a consumptive use of water that would otherwise be prohibited by rule or regulation and which the granting agency, district, or organization reasonably and in good faith believes will provide an economic, environmental, social, or public health and safety benefit that is equal to or greater than the benefit resulting from the rule or regulation from which a variance is sought;
(26) Historic consumptive use means the amount of water that has previously been consumed under appropriate and reasonably efficient practices to accomplish without waste the purposes for which the appropriation or other legally permitted use was lawfully made;
(27) Monitoring well means a water well that is designed and constructed to provide ongoing hydrologic or water quality information and is not intended for consumptive use;
(28) Order, except as otherwise specifically provided, includes any order required by the Nebraska Ground Water Management and Protection Act, by rule or regulation, or by a decision adopted by a district by vote of the board of directors of the district taken at any regularly scheduled or specially scheduled meeting of the board;
(29) Overall difference between the current and fully appropriated levels of development means the extent to which existing uses of hydrologically connected surface water and ground water and conservation activities result in the water supply available for purposes identified in subsection (3) of section 46-713 to be less than the water supply available if the river basin, subbasin, or reach had been determined to be fully appropriated in accordance with section 46-714 ;
(30) Test hole means a hole designed solely for the purposes of obtaining information on hydrologic or geologic conditions;
(31) Variance means (a) an approval to deviate from a restriction imposed under subsection (1), (2), (8), or (9) of section 46-714 or (b) the approval to act in a manner contrary to existing rules or regulations from a governing body whose rule or regulation is otherwise applicable;
(32) Certified irrigated acres means the number of acres or portion of an acre that a natural resources district has approved for irrigation from ground water in accordance with law and with rules adopted by the district; and
(33) Certified water uses means beneficial uses of ground water for purposes other than irrigation identified by a district pursuant to rules adopted by the district.
Source: Laws 1975, LB 577, § 2; Laws 1980, LB 643, § 9; Laws 1981, LB 146, § 5; Laws 1981, LB 325, § 1; Laws 1982, LB 375, § 2; Laws 1983, LB 378, § 2; Laws 1984, LB 1071, § 2; Laws 1986, LB 886, § 5; Laws 1986, LB 894, § 21; Laws 1991, LB 51, § 1; Laws 1993, LB 3, § 8; Laws 1993, LB 121, § 279; Laws 1993, LB 131, § 24; Laws 1993, LB 439, § 1; Laws 1993, LB 789, § 5; R.S.1943, (1993), § 46-657; Laws 1996, LB 108, § 13; Laws 2000, LB 900, § 190; Laws 2001, LB 135, § 1; Laws 2003, LB 93, § 1; R.S.Supp.,2003, § 46-656.07; Laws 2004, LB 962, § 46; Laws 2006, LB 1226, § 21; Laws 2009, LB477, § 4; Laws 2009, LB483, § 2; Laws 2019, LB302, § 27; Laws 2025, LB317, § 207. Operative Date: July 1, 2025
Cross References: Municipal and Rural Domestic Ground Water Transfers Permit Act, see section 46-650.
Annotations: Ground water is owned by the public, and the only right held by an overlying landowner is in the use of the ground water. Bamford v. Upper Republican Nat. Resources Dist., 245 Neb. 299, 512 N.W.2d 642 (1994). Ground water, as defined in this section, is owned by the public, and the only right held by an overlying landowner is in the use of the ground water. In re Application U-2, 226 Neb. 594, 413 N.W.2d 290 (1987).