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<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><P><SPAN>The Lower Platte South Natural Resources District (NRD), Papio-Missouri River NRD, Lower Platte North NRD, Metropolitan Utilities District (MUD), Lincoln Water System (LWS), and Nebraska Department of Water, Energy, and Environment (DWEE), collectively referred to as the Lower Platte River Consortium (Consortium), have embarked on a collaborative effort to develop a drought contingency plan for the Lower Platte River Basin in Nebraska. The focus of this first increment of the Drought Plan is to establish a framework for coordination and communication amongst Consortium members to address droughts in the Lower Platte River.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>The Lower Platte River, its tributaries, and aquifers serve approximately 80 percent of Nebraska’s population, thousands of businesses and industries, includes more than two million irrigated acres, and provides streamflows for threatened and endangered species. The drought-driven risks are diverse and a potential drought in the region would pose serious risk to public health, economy, and fish/wildlife. The plan was adopted in 2019-2020 and implemented in 2020. The plan’s duration is 5 years.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>This page highlights some of the drought indicators that are highlighted in the Drought Plan, including Standardized Precipitation (SPI) data from the Esri Living Atlas, Palmer Drought Severity Index values from the U.S. Drought Monitor, and in-stream flow data from the USGS WaterWatch.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>The Lower Platte River Drought Contingency Plan is available here in its entirety.</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV> |