Events

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TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Sunday, November 24
7:00 PM – NSIA Board of Directors Meeting, Diamond Ballroom 6

Monday, November 25
7:30 AM – 4:00 PM – Registration
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM – NSIA Annual Members Meeting, Diamond Ballroom 6
9:00 AM – 9:05 AM – OPENING SESSION – Welcome from Kearney Mayor Stanley Clouse, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
9:05 AM – 9:45 AM – MORNING 1ST SESSION – “Water Policy” presented by Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
9:45 AM – 10:30 AM – BREAK – Tour Exhibits, Diamond Ballroom 1-2-3
10:30 AM – 11:15 PM – MORNING 2ND SESSION – “Kingsley Dam Project” presented by Devin Brundage, GM, CNPPID, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
11:15 – 12:00 PM – MORNING 3RD SESSION – “Levy System & Preparedness” presented by John Winkler, General Manager, Papio NRD, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM – LUNCH – Kremer Award Presentation, Crystal Ballroom 4 – Tour Exhibits, Diamond Ballroom 1-2-3
1:30 PM – 2:00 PM – AFTERNOON 1ST SESSION – “NDEE Update” presented by Steve Goans, Environmental Engineer, NDEE, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
2:00 PM – 2:30 PM – AFTERNOON 2ND SESSION – “Nitrate Study” presented by Bridger Corkill, Engineer, NDEE, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
2:30 PM – 3:15 PM – BREAK – Tour Exhibits, Diamond Ballroom 1-2-3
3:15 PM – 4:00 PM – AFTERNOON 3RD SESSION – “Surface Water Infrastructure Panel” presented by LeRoy Sievers, Knudsen Law Firm; Mike Placke, JEO Consulting Group; & Dennis Strauch, Pathfinder Irrigation District, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
4:00 PM – 4:45 PM – AFTERNOON 4TH SESSION – “Climate Update – Change Effects” presented by Deb Bathke, UNL State Climatologist, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM – RECEPTION AND VISIT EXHIBITS, Diamond Ballroom 1-2-3

Tuesday, November 26
7:30 AM – 9:30 AM – Registration
7:30 AM – 8:15 AM – NeWRA Annual Members Meeting, Diamond Ballroom 7
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM – NeWRA Board Meeting, Diamond Ballroom 7
9:00 AM – 9:45 AM – MORNING 1ST SESSION –“NE Dept of Natural Resources Update” presented by Jesse Bradley, Assistant Director, NDNR, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
9:45 AM – 10:15 AM – MORNING 2ND SESSION – “Combined Sewer Program Project” presented by Jim Theiler, Assistant Director, Public Works, City of Omaha, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
10:15 AM – 10:45 AM – BREAK – Tour Exhibits, Diamond Ballroom 1-2-3
10:45 AM – 11:15 AM – MORNING 3RD SESSION – “Star Wars Project Update” presented by Tim McCoy, Director, NE Game and Parks Commission, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
11:15 AM – NOON – MORNING 4TH SESSION – “Update on US Bureau of Reclamation Issues & Activities” presented by Aaron Thompson, NE/KS Area Mgr, Diamond Ballroom 4-5
NOON – 1:30 PM – LUNCH – “Mesonet Weather Network” presented by Rueben Behnke, Manager, Mesonet Weather Network, Crystal Ballroom 4

Exhibitors

Sponsors

Monday Afternoon Break

Tuesday Lunch

Television Programs

Nebraska: The Great American Water Machine. Ground and Surface Water are interconnected. One feeds and grows off the other, without one the other would not exist. This program discusses the impact of the water from Nebraska City to Scottsbluff, from Holdrege to Valentine. The power to grow crops to the power to run your dishwasher comes from water. The program discusses the wide number of groups that use the water that is in Nebraska and the amounts of water that surrounding states receive from this “Great American Water Machine” that we call Nebraska.

This NET World program was put together with Nebraska State Irrigation Association (NSIA) along with the financial backing of the following sponsors:

Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District; Nebraska Public Power District; North Platte Valley Irrigation Districts; Farwell Irrigation District; Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District; Sargent Irrigation District; Twin Loups Reclamation & Irrigation District; Tim Anderson Memorial Water Education Fund; and the Water Futures Partnership Nebraska

The North American Great Plains is an arid expanse of grasslands and rivers where the flow of water shows no respect for state boundaries. What do you learn if you try to follow that water?

Photographer and author Michael Forsberg and filmmaker Pete Stegen set out on an adventure to do just that – follow a mythical drop of water 1,300 miles through three different states as they journeyed through the Platte Basin Watershed.

Nebraska Public Media’s documentary Follow the Water is a story about connections between the environment and people, and a river that has shaped the land itself. For almost two months, Forsberg and Stegen pushed themselves to the limit – biking, hiking and canoeing from the headwaters of the North Platte River in Wyoming to the mouth of the Platte where it flows into the Missouri.

Friends joined them, guided them during their 55-day journey and even rescued them when they got into trouble. Sunrises and sunsets colored the skies as the travelers moved from the solitude of alpine wilderness, to the sprawling suburbs of Denver, to the peace of Nebraska’s prairie, past Kingsley Dam and finally on to the Platte River itself.

Through iPhone interviews, photography from the Platte Basin Timelapse Project, journals and drawings – and with a backdrop of spectacular landscapes – Follow the Water tells a beautiful story about water as it flows from the mountains to the plains.