Groundewater management area receives grant, updates website

The Bazile Groundwater Management Area has launched a new website for the new year.

The BGMA's new online presence debuted in early January at bgma.nebraska.gov in a move to separate itself from the Lewis & Clark Natural Resources District's website.

"We decided to get a new website so we would have our own stand-alone website," said Jeremy Milander, the management area's Nebraska Extension cropping systems educator.

"We felt that this would avoid some confusion as our old site was a tab on the Lewis & Clark NRD site," he said.

The website features information about the BGMA, such as the background of the project, cost-share opportunities and communities within the management area.

There also are articles about and studies of the management area available on the website as well as live Facebook and Twitter feeds for the BGMA.

In addition, the website has a tab for University of Nebraska-Lincoln demonstration sites for which the BGMA received a grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust.

The $209,500 grant was for the second year of a project that is currently underway and called the "Development of Research and Demonstration Sites in the BGMA for Groundwater nitrate Reduction."

"For this project, we are continuing three advanced nitrogen and water management research and demonstration sites, where we will demonstrate and research best management practices to prevent nitrate leaching into groundwater," Milander said.

The management area's project was one of 118 announced by the NET last year that each received a portion of $20 million in lottery proceeds for natural resources work in Nebraska.

The NET awarded $228,500 in grant money to the BGMA in 2019 for the same groundwater nitrate reduction project.

Located in northeast Nebraska, the management area was formed collaboratively among the Lower Elkhorn, the Upper Elkhorn, the Lower Niobrara and the Lewis & Clark NRDs and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, which is now part of the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy.

Within these four NRDs, the BGMA includes parts of Antelope, Knox and Pierce counties and the communities of Bazile Mills, Brunswick, Creighton, Foster, Orchard, Osmond, Plainview, Royal, Wausa and Winnetoon.

The four NRDs and the state agency created a plan in 2013 for increasing education and incentives for local communities and agricultural producers to address high nitrate levels in the BGMA by implementing best management practices for reducing nitrate leaching into the groundwater.

To further this effort, the BGMA partnered with Nebraska Extension and the Nebraska Water Center, part of the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska, to design the project.

The management area's plan to address nitrate issues was completed in 2016 by project partners. This plan was the first federally recognized groundwater-focused plan to address nonpoint source pollution in the nation.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, nonpoint source pollution is caused when rainfall or snowmelt, moving over and through the ground, picks up and carries natural and humanmade pollutants, depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and groundwaters.

The BGMA's groundwater nitrate reduction project has included:

-Developing three advanced nitrogen and water management research and demonstration sites.

-Conducting annual field days and educational meetings.

-Providing an analysis of the success of various water and nitrogen application methods utilized.

According to a press release from the BGMA:

"Through innovative education and demonstration, this project will encourage widespread adoption of improved practices, positively impacting ground and surface water quality and soil management.

"This project is a vital step forward in stabilizing, and eventually reducing, nitrate levels within the BGMA as experts in natural resources management, with the help of NET, target this serious issue."