NET News Statewide: CREP Non-Irrigating land, 4/22/05

Drought and other factors have taken a toll on an important resource that was once seemingly endless, causing many Nebraskans to ask, “where’s the water?” “Statewide” reports on the struggle for what little water remains in Lake McConnaughy (Nebraska’s largest reservoir), details CREP (a new federal program that would pay irrigators not to farm in the most heavily depleted areas), talks about the changing world of water management with David Aiken (an ag economist and water law specialist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln), examines ways farmers are changing their operations and using new tools to deal with less water, and has the story of the construction of Lake McConnaughy and Kingsley Dam.