The worst groundwater level decline in Nebraska last year was found in Butler County near David City.
According to Aaron Young, a geologist for the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, the well near David City saw a decline of slightly more than 20 feet.
Young said Eastern Nebraska is where most of the declines took place.
“Most of that half of the state saw declines ranging from 2 to 10 feet,” Young said.
Water levels have declined steadily since spring 2020. On average, since the spring of 2020 to the spring of 2023, groundwater levels declined by 3.5 feet statewide.
Data for a few hundred wells has been collected through April of 2024, but despite recent moisture across most of the state, he said those values didn’t get much better.
“We’ve seen in some areas quite a bit of rain since then, so I would suspect that some of those are going to come back up, but those rises take time, too,” he said. “It takes time for water to make it from the surface down into the aquifer.”
Young said most of the rises were found in areas south of the Platte River and around the Calamus Reservoir.
