Groundwater

Groundwater is vital to the “Good Life” in Nebraska. It maintains our agricultural economy, supplies water to streams and lakes, and provides drinking water to municipalities and rural households. Nebraskans pump groundwater out of the High Plains aquifer and many other aquifers across the state. The vast majority of groundwater is used for agricultural production.

Monday May 19, 2025

Groundwater regulation impacts on Nebraska land values

With new regulations being implemented in Nebraska because of falling groundwater levels, you may be wondering how they will impact the value of agricultural lands in those regions. Ag economists from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute analyzed what has happened historically. Their findings: Land values were unaffected by groundwater allocations. Neither allocations or well moratoria had any significant effect on the value of land that had already been developed for irrigation. Well moratoria reduced the value of dryland acres by 9%.

Friday April 25, 2025

Drought year causes groundwater level decline

The annual Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Report from the Conservation and Survey Division in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s School of Natural Resources shows that groundwater levels in the eastern half of the state continue to decline following several years of persistent drought.

Thursday April 3, 2025

100 years of Nebraska nitrogen

Nitrogen is an essential plant nutrient but increasingly found in our water. Here is a brief history:
Monday February 24, 2025

Be Groundwater Aware in Your Day-to-Day Life!

National Groundwater Awareness Week is March 9–15, making it the perfect time to talk about groundwater in Nebraska! What exactly is groundwater? It is the water below the earth’s surface that fills the interconnected voids and cracks in and around soil particles, sand, gravel and rock — all of this is what we call an aquifer.

Monday December 23, 2024

Managing Hard Water

Many parts of Nebraska have hard water. Hard water has a high mineral content; hardness primarily refers to the amount of calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) dissolved in the water. Hard water is not just a private well owner’s problem, it affects many municipal water users, too. While hard water does not present a health risk for the vast majority of the population, it is often a nuisance for rural and urban homeowners across the state. Having your well water tested for hardness is helpful in assessing what treatment system will work best.

Monday July 29, 2024

Nitrogen Sources and Water Quality Field Day

Nebraska Extension will host a Nitrogen Sources and Water Quality Field Day on August 13, 2024, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at the Haskell Ag Lab near Concord, NE.
Friday May 17, 2024

Nebraska 4Rs Nutrient Stewardship Field Day Set for July 11

This year's 4Rs Field Day will feature a demonstration on UNL's newly developed web-based N tool, designed to increase efficiency of nitrogen use, as well as ease of record-keeping.
Tuesday May 7, 2024

Groundwater Nitrate in Nebraska: Key Factors and Timescales of Movement

Factors Influencing Groundwater Nitrate Concentrations
Friday February 2, 2024

Nebraska Water Facts

Nebraska means “flat water” from the Omaha Sioux “ni braska” and Oto “ni brathge”/ Nebraskier describing the Platte River. The Platte River was named by early French explorers, also meaning “flat.” The Panhandle is almost 6.5 times higher elevation than the Southeast. (5,424 ft above sea level versus 840 ft). Southeast NE receives 2.5 times as much annual precipitation as the Panhandle (average 33” versus 13”).
Friday January 5, 2024

Substituting Commercial Fertilizer with Manure a Focus of Annual Manure Training Events

It’s that time of year again and I’m here to help you stay on track for that New Year’s resolution to “Manure Better”. That wasn’t your resolution? I’m sorry, but it would be a great resolution and an achievable one at that, so add it to your list. My New Year’s resolution is to help crop farmers “Manure Better”. The annual land application (manure) training events are coming up soon and may be just the ticket to “help me, help you”.
Friday August 18, 2023

Optimize Those Last Few Irrigations

Scheduling the last few irrigations of the season deserves extra attention because the goal is not only to focus on keeping the crop wet enough to produce optimal yields, but also on using up stored soil water. Leaving the field a little drier at the end of the season will save irrigation costs, decrease leaching losses, improve soil conditions for harvest traffic, and save water for future years. Growers also don't want to miss out on capturing off-season precipitation.
Tuesday August 15, 2023

Know Your Well program empowers students to understand local water quality

Access to quality water is critical. Testing can indicate whether water is safe for people to consume. Know Your Well is a program used to test well water across Nebraska at no cost to the community, while teaching local high school students valuable skills. In the past seven years, Know Your Well has been implemented in more than 28 school districts throughout the state. The program has received funding to grow to 50 or more schools over the next few years and expand its curriculm.
Monday August 14, 2023

Irrigation Scheduling Application to Conserve Water Resources

Agriculture today is not what it was a decade ago. We are at an interesting pace of agricultural technological innovation and development in sensors, controls, robotics and technology, including irrigation scheduling applications. The declining quantity and quality of freshwater resources in many parts of the world, including the United States, imposes significant challenges for producers, managers, advisors and decision-makers to produce more yield with less water. It is necessary to promote sound management strategies to improve irrigation efficiency and conserve water resources. By using irrigation scheduling applications, producers can make more informed decisions that can lead to higher yields with fewer irrigation inputs. Nebraska is one of the top states that produces maize under different irrigation methods, in third place after Iowa and Illinois. The total irrigated area in Nebraska reaches about 9.3 million acres. More than 85% of the total irrigation areas use the center pivot irrigation system, while about 15% is covered by furrow irrigation and less than 1% is managed by subsurface drip irrigation systems (see fig. 1). A new irrigation scheduling application is being developed to improve irrigation scheduling that can have a substantial impact in using limited water supplies more effectively and increase yield per unit applied of irrigation water and sustain agricultural productivity. At the request of Irriga Global, Lutry, Switzerland, a field test was initiated for the 2022 growing season on maize fields to evaluate the irrigation scheduling application in one of the Irrigation Today.
Tuesday August 8, 2023

Nebraska Water Center Researchers Conduct Statewide Project to Characterize Nitrogen Transformation Beneath the Ground Surface

How nitrogen moves and is changed in the soil is important to help protect Nebraska's groundwater from contamination. However, these changes are not fully understood. To help understand these processes, a research team led by Dr. Arindam Malakar, scientist and research assistant professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Nebraska Water Center part of the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has begun a statewide study to uncover nitrogen transformation in the vadose zone. Continue reading about their project across Nebraska.
Monday July 31, 2023

Using Water Resources More Efficiently

Nebraska is no stranger to dry spells, especially during the summer months. Unfortunately, we have been experiencing longer year-round dry spells in recent years that are becoming more severe to deal with. While using water more efficiently is always a good habit to adopt, it becomes more critical during times of drought, even if restrictions are not mandatory yet.
Friday April 28, 2023

New Whitepaper Explores the Connection between Soil Health and Water Quality

The Soil Health Nexus is excited to debut two new resources on the Soil Health Toolbox! Two Soil Health Nexus members, Francisco Arriaga, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Anna Cates, Assistant Professor and State Soil Health Specialist at the University of Minnesota, recently published a long-awaited whitepaper exploring the connection between soil health and water quality.
Friday April 21, 2023

Don’t Lose Out on Free Nitrogen from Irrigation Water

Extension recommendations for calculating the amount of nitrate-nitrogen in irrigation water and optimal timing of applications to reduce the cost of nitrogen inputs in irrigated corn.
Friday April 7, 2023

Water for Food Conference to Address Water and Food Security in a Changing World

This year's conference will focus on innovative ways to improve water and food security by increasing farmers’ resiliency to a changing landscape.
Friday March 31, 2023

Alfalfa in Rotation with Annual Crops Reduces Nitrate Leaching Potential and Increases Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration

This UNL research study provides insights on the rotation of annual crops with alfalfa as a highly effective means of reducing nitrate-nitrogen contamination in groundwater.
Monday December 19, 2022

Rust-stained irrigation pipes hint at lack of nitrate in groundwater

According to study from Department of Natural Resources researchers, irrigation pivots stained with rust may indicate the absence of nitrate in the groundwater supplying the pivots. This information can potentially be used to help screen for areas for the potential absence of nitrate and, in an ideal world, could indicate areas at higher- or lower-risk for nitrate contamination before it becomes a problem.