Devin Brundage - Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District

Devin Brundage, General Manager of the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, talks about the history of the Kingsley Dam and Lake McConaughy as well as the important role Central plays in generating electricity and helping Nebraska farmers irrigate.  

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Nebraska. It's not just a place, but a way of life.

It's 93 counties that are home to innovative individuals, caring communities, and a spirit that runs deeper than its fertile soil.

It's a story that should be told.

Welcome to 93 The Podcast.

Welcome to 93, the podcast where we talk about Nebraska. It's communities. It's number one industry agriculture and the people who make it happen. I'm Mark Fahleson your host for today's episode, brought to you by the Rembolt Ludtke Law Firm. Today I'm joined by my colleague, Rembolt Ludtke, attorney Kurth Brashear and Devin Brundage, who is the general manager of the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District.

Devin Kurth, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Mark. Good to be here.

Devin, tell us what you do. I am the general manager for the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District. And how long have you worked for central?

Right out of college. So 33 years now. So, given what you do, let me guess. Were you an engineering major? You guessed it. Electrical engineer from, the great University of Nebraska-Lincoln. So I had my bunch of roommates in college were electrical engineering majors. I that you guys are different sorts your different parts, but, very valued.

You guys didn't go out a lot, did you? No. They didn't. You know, I did. I was in ag major.

Devin, our podcast is named 93, which comes from Nebraska's 93 counties. What county is central headquartered in? Central is headquartered in Holdridge, Nebraska. So what county that is? County 37 on your license plate. Phelps County, Phelps county. And so we are we're also located in, County 68, 15, 1873 and 52 as well.

So I get to take credit for all those right there. 93 bingo. Right there. Yeah. See, I think we're almost done with this. So central Nebraska. Give our listeners a little, history lesson on, how it came about and what it does.

Thanks, Mark. It it is, a really rich history. And, as I've been with the district, dug further and further into it, it's it's a it's an incredible story.

And it always starts with somebody with a problem. There happened to be some folks in the South central part of Nebraska that could not raise a crop, reliably, year after year. Maybe one out of seven years. Mister, Mister Kingsley and Mister McConaughey. Local folks, banker, mayor. And, they wanted to basically just bring some water out of the Platte River as it flowed, from Wyoming and great rushes in the spring.

And hopefully there would be enough subsoil during the summer to to get a

crop. So I, I that's funny. You mentioned McConaughey. I was going to ask you because I, I'm embarrassed in Nebraska, and I did not know where the name McConaughey came from for Lake McConaughey. Yeah. And,

the the story gets even more interesting in that, those two were the guys that said, I have a problem.

And, a couple more folks, the problem solvers. George Norris, of course, famous Nebraskan. But, George Johnson as well. Those two guys really were the architects for our project, the central project and, other projects in the state to the Lou project and at the time, what was the Platte Valley Public Power and Irrigation District project?

Hydroelectric. They they they thought outside the box. Bigger, bigger than just putting some water on the ground and hoping that that was enough for the year. They said, no, we're going to build infrastructure. This is going to look something like, TVA. I think, Mr. Norris called it his little TVA, the ability to take these resources, this water, and not just do one thing with it, but create create a, beneficial, system that could provide water, energy and really, take what at the time was, this, 187s industrial revolution that had come to many places, but now it's coming to Nebraska electrification, bringing, you know,opportunities for, ag industry to the farm. And that was their dream.

inception of this, the, the, the generation of this idea, what approximately what years.

So, yeah, they they began, forming the district in the early 3s. And by 1935, they had a, a real charter ready to, to go forth.

So the two problems they were trying to solve, at least, were power and irrigation, power and water. And today those two are very potent, pairs that go together. And there's been additional benefits that have been realized from the system. But those were the the root elements that, so when many folks think of McConaughey, they think of tourism.

Was that one of their ideas back then? I don't think

tourism was high on their list. It was all about this. How can we, you know, make these crops and power our homes? You know, it was rural electrification. All of this works together. Power our homes, bring the water, make the crops. And it was that early, early productivity that really brought prosperity to many of these areas earlier than it would have in other cases, because there was no there was no groundwater irrigation at the time.

And so that was your only way to really get, expert on to, to, sustainability.

So center pivots did not exist back then. So was it all, gravity flow, gravity

ditch, irrigated. They called them life boxes. They had all kinds of crazy, crazy names back in the day, but, very into and by today's standards, very inefficient, irrigation methods.

And, you know, then the center pivot. And today we have, drip drip systems and, much improved efficiency of, of, irrigation water delivery.

So what percentage, Jim, maybe you don't know the exact percentage, but roughly how many of your consumers have shifted to a drip irrigation system?

That is kind of on the front edge of adoption.

We're way over 5% on center pivots, and that's a much, much improved, sure. Efficiency. So, yeah, it's it's never a fast process, but, we're getting there more and more and more people adopting these, these, efficient technologies all the

time. So I've seen pictures. But what existed before Lake McConaughey was created by virtue of the construction of the dam was there there was a town there, was there not?

Yeah. Lemoyne existed in the river valley. And it had to be relocated. There's always a challenge, no matter, when you're when you're doing these big infrastructure projects. So town had to be relocated before the the dam could be constructed.

So that the dam give our listeners an idea of the size of the dam. Kingsley dam.

The dam itself, at the time it was built, was the largest hydraulic field dam in the world.

The dam stream a little over three miles long, 163 feet high. When the lake's full, it's about 22 miles long. Really large lake and and all pointed towards the the, dam. Oh, northwest, which, has caused us some, maintenance issues that we'll talk about maybe later on, but, as, as designed, it would hold 2 million acre feet.

Somewhere if you, took that volume of water and spread it over the entire state of Nebraska, you could cover a half inch over the entire

state. So I think just out of curiosity, how many acre feet of water does central provide to Nebraska's farmers for purposes of irrigation?

And that's that's where it gets even more interesting.

Lake McConaughey serves not only our customers, it serves, many other needs in the state. You know, we talked about tourism is, something that we've, ran across later on. But even before that, that's the Platte Valley public power irrigation system back in the 3s. Sutherland Lake, near west North Platte was, built to provide water for many other surface water irrigation canals in the Central Platte region.

And and now today, with the lake, southern lake not being able to be filled to capacity, that water is held in Lake McConaughey for those customers as well. So, if you're talking about, direct surface water irrigation needs beyond centrals, you know, you may be over 25, acres central alone. We have 19, or so acres that we serve directly with surface water.

you were talking about all the counties you could check off our list here, as you go. So that water that's in McConaughey. How far east does that go? How far south does that go through the project? Yeah, we, we like to, we created a little, saying, a few years ago from economy to Mendon.

So all the way from Keyes County, that water, whether ours or or serve through other, other surface water canal companies, is provided from, Keith County and Lincoln County and Dawson County and Gosper County and Phelps County and Kearney County, and even a little bit into Buffalo County and the Kearney Canal there so that that water, provides, beneficiary, recharge.

And we talk about recharge. That's, that's water that, gets applied to the land but also runs through these canals. All of these, all of this plumbing, this plumbing has a huge benefit, from this recharge piece, water in the lakes and, and the canals seeps into the ground. And as that seeps in that it builds up the aquifer.

We hear about the Ogallala Aquifer. But in this region from, McKinney amended, you know, we've we've built this this, excess water in the ground that that not only provides, irrigation water for our customers, but the groundwater customers that are adjacent to it, and also that water as it seeps, out of that, built up amount goes into the rivers, back into the rivers, the Platte River and even to the Republican River to the south of us.

And that provides certainty that water flow in the river, helps provide certainty that those groundwater irrigators, even far away from the project, have some, some ability and benefit to their ability to, groundwater areas.

So how much power does Kingsley Dam provide?

All of our facilities. And it's another, testament to, George Johnson, George Norris's vision.

But, you know, that water does a lot of work before it, exits the system or is, delivered for irrigation? It, produces, 5MW of energy at Kingsley Hydro. Central has 6MW of additional hydro is further downstream. It provides cooling water for Jerrold. Gentlemen station and Sutherland. That's a 13 megawatt coal fired plant, largest in the state.

It provides, water for the North Platte Hydro, which is part of MPP system today. So all of that energy is, is, part of the the benefits that come from this, this

project as well. So I'm not an engineer. I told you that, so has, so, like, give me an idea how many houses or how many residents or how many people does that potentially benefit.

So our 1, 11MW that central produces, a rough, rough estimate, maybe this, city size of Kearney. Wow.

right. And I mean, the original. Yeah, yeah, it was, renewable before renewable was cool.

So

Which agencies are you regulated by?


We are. We have a lot of oversight.

So, our ability to even operate a water power project like this is, given to us by the federal Energy Regulatory Commission. We call it Ferc. And so those folks provide us a license to operate our, our system, they ensure dam safety, they ensure that we are compliant with, environmental needs. And so all all of that is under that, umbrella and then the state, state of Nebraska, they are the, the Department of Natural Resources is our regulator for dam safety here in the state as well.

And then they they are the regulators for our water rights and make sure that, all of that, accounting is taken

care of. So in a previous work life, I worked on Capitol Hill, and it was, often worked with the folks from the public power industry or trade association. And I mean, again, another thing I'm embarrassed about, I didn't learn this in fourth grade history, in Nebraska, but Nebraska.

True. Is it not true that we are the only all public power state in the nation? That is correct. Yeah. That was, another thing that George Norris was,

you know, very adamant about that this is the right way to do this. And, and, back in the day, back to history, Central and loop. And now at the time where the really the drivers to get Nebraska to the all public power status.

It was it was a great feat and has served us well for a long time. So do you have retail electric customers like Las or OPD or. We? We do not. We are wholesale only. So, all of our generation and, back through history, history, we even, Canada steam plant was built by Central and then in the 195s.

And so all of that generation was, was used to, provide energy to the, the state system at the time. And then Mark asked you about who, who, regulates. But I mean, who do you report to or who's in charge of central? So from, our, public power and irrigation, statues. Where from once we are created, the power review board has our has the authority to, to, regulate us directly.

And then you have an elected board, is that right? Right. So every I think every public power, district or municipality has some sort of elected, elected board. We we exist at the at the, pleasure of the state. And so, yeah, we have 12 board members from those six counties.

Approximately how many employees do you have? Have about 97 employees.

You know, they largely spread out over the geographic area that you, service. Yeah. And so we're

we're diverse. We have, irrigation service. We have this, generation, the hydro plants, the substations that we own. And so, yeah, we're we're spread out from, Holdridge and to Bertrand to Gotham Burg, to Oglala, have have, outposts in

each of those locations.

Earlier, you hinted that perhaps Kingsley is, in need of some, restoration or remediation. Well, what's going on there? Yeah.

All of our facilities. Now, you think about 1935 or are approaching 1 years old. And, all of this, really important infrastructure, what brings so much economic vitality to, to our part of the region, it requires, requires maintenance.

And, Kingsley Dam phase. We discovered it a few years ago after some wind that had, moves, some some of the dam facing the riprap that call it around a little bit, caused us to do some investigation and dug in pretty deeply and have discovered that, really the the dam phasing system, even as it was installed in 19, 1935 through 41, was not adequate.

It was they just did not understand back in those days what this 22 mile long lake could, could develop for energy with those northwest winds shooting right down towards the dam and the original phasing system that they had installed failed within the just the first couple of years. And so we've been spending money, over the over the decades on this, and it's been determined it's time to take this off and really put a system in there that was was designed to take the amount of abuse that this lake can produce.

Is there a chance you could actually rebuild the entire dam? Oh, it really is. Just as facing the dam is safe, and we always like to make sure everybody who's, there, there is no issues with the dam. And Ferc has been out with us and the state and and we monitor this. And what we need to do is replace the phasing system.

So there's a lot of rock. If you've ever been out to Lake Michigan. And I'll encourage you to take a.

If you haven't. It's a it's a beautiful place. But that that facing that rock is just not, graded properly. There's, there needs to be levels and different sizes. It's a whole system that really needs to be put in place, and that'll require us to remove much of that original facing and and replace it with the right, right material.

So I haven't done the tour. Kurth. I think you have. Or you actually do. You get to go down in the dam and see

sort of the innards of it? I haven't yet. I know some around here. There is such a tour, is there not? There is. So tell us about it. Apparently with a five foot long wrench or crowbar

or something that yeah, we have, we, have the opportunity to have tours.

You can go out on the big morning glory structure. And it is impressive when you're out there to see, how much water can be moved through this facility if need be. But then the hydro plant down below, we can, take tours of that every five years. We even open the tube up, and, not for probably, non personnel, but, you know, the ability to actually walk underneath the dam and the tube to the outlet structures underneath.

Yeah. I think I'll pass on that. I think I'll skip that part of the tour. A little claustrophobic. Yeah. Maybe slightly. So in recent years, there have been some who have proposed or suggested that they need to build a dam on the eastern part of Nebraska, mainly for recreation, to create some type of, something like a lake.

McIntyre. East. Those that really haven't gone anywhere, is it is it even feasible or possible to take a project that was as ginormous as Kingsley Dam in the creation, like the Carnahan actually trying to do something like that in today's world, it is

difficult. You think about, trying to recreate a McConaughey today, especially on River, the amount of permitting and the regulations that are in place today.

Never say impossible. And I'm an eternal optimist, but it would be really difficult. Off channel, facilities are, are more plausible. And I'll, I'll point to the, the what they call the Perkins County Canal and Reservoir. The, it's on the South Platte, but that's an off channel reservoir. And, that's been funded and and I think when we talk about infrastructure, that can really make a difference in the tourism piece in eastern Nebraska is important.

We need to find some way to, to bring those opportunities to. But this is critical for a making sure that the water that Nebraska deserves is brought here and be to support what has occurred over time. The the diminishing, amount of water that comes into Lake McKinney from development, to continue to do what we do and, and have the chance to do even more down the road is predicated on making sure that we'd have our infrastructure that we have today ready to go and new infrastructure to support it tomorrow.

So one thing many folks don't know, and I didn't learn until recent years that in addition to the irrigation, services that you provide for so many Nebraska farmers, in addition to the energy that you create, you you also are a fairly significant landlord on some of the lakes that you, own and actually lease back that ground for folks to create cabins.

I call them houses and they maybe call them cabins on. And that'd be, Johnson Lake. And there's at Lake Jeffrey. That's another one. Jeffrey. Jeffrey. Lake McConaughey. Okay. Midway Lake,

we have, you know, we have these this major lake, Lake McConaughey and then, Jeffrey and Johnson that people hear about. But, you know, there's dozens of other smaller little lakes and and, the canal system is it's absolutely gorgeous.

If, your listeners should, make it make a trip to western Nebraska when you actually have folks who will do canoe trips or kayak down the supply canal. Is that right? Absolutely. Yeah. So as this water resource that you've provided, I mean, what's the mark alluded to it earlier, but what is the tourism impact of Central's project.

Has has anyone at the district calculated that, so the when we look at Lake McConaughey by itself, I know there's been statistics on that. And, at its at its peak, I think maybe 2 million visitor days annually. Wow. That's a huge number, economically and to kind of put that in perspective, this was probably two decades ago.

They did a study and said, what is the actual economic impact of this system? And that's all downstream economic impacts from the bait shop to, groundwater irrigation, to recharge, to, anything that comes beneficially from the project at the time. You know, it's like 8 million. I, I estimate it today, you know, well over $1 billion a year, probably of downstream economic

benefits, all coming from an idea by two gentlemen who were trying to solve a couple of problems.

Yep. And continues to pay today. The whole project costs something like $49 million, you know. And so, you know, to to translate that to to the vision today, $6 million for a, South Platte Canal and reservoir system. It's a lot of money. Absolutely. Is. It will pay back year after year after year. And that's what our, our project is.

And it's, it's the proof is in the pudding,

I think you asked Mark earlier and I don't know that Devin answered it, but if my understanding is McConaughey was the mayor of Wooldridge and Kingsley was the mayor of Mendon, is that right? A I think, Mr. McConaughey may have been the mayor of Holdridge and Fred Kingsley, a banker and banker, and but I mean, that idea of local elected officials and being able to have a vision and an impact.

I think today we would think, well, it's got to be a governor or a senator or somebody else. There were a couple people who galvanize public support for it. And and even there, it's it's amazing. Even when the project was being developed, and this was kind of an interesting part of the story, a little twist, these these folks did help bring this, this idea to fruition.

They had you had to have these people brought in. Not everybody was, you know,

and that's that's what I assume if your house is going to be flooded and they're moving you, you're probably not a big fan of the project. That's great. But even even

in the areas that would be served, the original design in the 193s was not like McConaughey.

It was two really large Plum Creek reservoirs, something like Sutherlands and, the folks, in DC convinced, George Johnson that he needed to think a little bit bigger. And as part of that, they they pivoted and they went to Lake McKinney. And thank goodness they did with that additional storage size, that was that was critical to our success today.

Well, that was not C.W. McConaughey's vision. He he was not on board with it. And as a matter of fact, with the

board before the lake constructed. And then they named the lake after. Yeah. Hi. What's the future of hydroelectric? It seems to me to be, I mean, such a phenomenal source of energy. Green, renewable. But again, are there just so many regulatory and other hurdles that building more dams today in the United States is difficult, if not impossible?

It is difficult.

Maybe not impossible. And there are dams today that are unpowered. If you look throughout the United States, even in Nebraska, there's there's a few. And so there's your low hanging fruit, to build a really large reservoir, it is difficult and costly. You think about the, the costs of some other renewable, technologies.

There's a lot of concrete, a lot of steel and large components in hydro. But I don't think that should stop us. You know, they were expensive and in 1933 to, But we have to we have to make sure that we're creating a grid, a set of resources for our generation of tomorrow. And these are kind of locally distributed generation resources, which is could be helpful.

Could I put a small hydro for a megawatt or two here or there, even on the central system today, potentially, we've looked at, putting solar panels over our canals, minimize evaporation. And there's real estate that's unused. We have to be ready to look to what the future needs are. And, and public power has been here in the past, and we have to make sure that we're we're focused on the future to.

So I'm just just curious, when this idea first came about and we build a dam, we start producing power and providing irrigation water. What was the primary crop? I know today it's corn, right. But was corn that big back then? You know,

a it was probably a bigger mix. But yeah, corn was, in all the historical photos that were that's what we we would see.

Okay. So who are you who's central, selling the power you're generating with these dams, too? Is that is it going out of state? Is it feeding a Google facility in Texas or what's happening with that? Yeah. So to to fund our operations and to think about our revenues for a moment, where we take in maybe on an average of 2, $22 million a year to, manage and take care of all of this, infrastructure.

The largest portion of that is our energy sales, 6, 7%, probably. And so, as we look to, partners to deliver the energy to, today, actually, we have one power plant. We're looking at a, new contract with. But we're currently contracted with a couple of our power plants with, Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska.

So that goes to, municipalities around the region. Kingsley Hydro is contracted with NPP. And so, you know, those those contracts ebb and flow and change. We want to make sure that we're bringing the most value to the resources so that we can maintain all of that infrastructure, that that dam repair that we talked about a few minutes ago, estimates somewhere between, 1 and $25 million to do those repairs.

That's a big number when you think about a $2 million revenue stream. And so, we'll be working hard to, to, make sure that we have a sound financial, system in

place, given how sustainable it just from a environmental standpoint the system is, hopefully there be some federal incentives or federal dollars to help with that. Yeah, we'll be, building,

a stack of, you know, probably some, hopefully some federal grants, you know, work with our partners.

It's we will find a way to take care of it like we always have. It will be a challenge. It'll be a big challenge for us. But, as part of what we do every day, what's the biggest challenge facing central? As you look ahead, I think, yeah, of course, that aging infrastructure is is a big deal.

And you hear it everywhere, right? It's roads. It's bridges. It's it's, and we have a lot of 1 year old stuff, but it's also making sure that we understand what, what is coming down the road at us. So we want to be prepared, you know, what is the next technology and in the partnerships? I haven't even talked about the, collaboration today that, you know, maybe didn't exist 2, 3 years ago.

It'll be 1962, became law in, in 24. And to groundwater users on one side of the fence and surface water users on the other side of the fence and got them to tear down the fence. We impact each other. Let's work together towards a better way to manage the water resources for everybody. It's the water is is our state.

And we have to make sure that, in central I think is, is very well positioned to strike that balance so that all of these beneficiaries, whether it's recreation, whether it's groundwater recharge, whether it's energy production, whether it's surface water irrigation, whether it's, making sure that our, enhancements to the wildlife in the, in the river are taken care of.

We have that unique opportunity to, to help the state be

successful. So let's go out ten years. Let's go to 235. Okay. Maybe look ahead. What does the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District look like? What's Kingsley Dam look like? What's Lake McConaughey look like? What's on the horizon? Well, I hope, Lake McConaughey dam looks perfectly, redone.

Maybe it's concrete, maybe it's rock. We don't know yet

today, but, I hope it looks different. I think it has to, Because, we can't just continue to do what we've always done. We have to continue to develop the, partnerships with, our, our the folks in the neighborhood that, manage water, continue to develop those partnerships with the state and, the program and our local resource districts.

There's the new economy is coming, right? You've we've we hear about it every day, even, the, the bio economy. What are the energy demands of the future? We've we've heard about a couple of projects that, are around, green, green fertilizer and and sustainable aviation fuel, high energy use. You know, we have to be ready to, to take the, the resources that we have and make sure that, as I think I've heard the governor say, making sure that we're, we're, making value added egg, priority front and center for for Nebraska.

Precision Hague is changing everything. We have to have energy projects for energy intensive, value added industries, new recreational opportunities. We can we can look at places where we can develop, just like you mentioned, lakes in the eastern part of the state. Are there locations that we can provide additional recreational opportunities to help enhance Nebraska's quality of life?

Those are the those are the three today. Right. Quality of life. That water, that energy. Those are the the basic ingredients that, make, make our region, prosperous. When you add in all of the other services and, technologies that are there for us.

So, Devin, one thing we ask all of our guests, give us one word, one word and one word only.

The describes this wonderful place in which we live and work. Nebraska. Okay, I'm cheating, and I'm going to use two. Oh, what is it? Well, we'll judge whether you get two, but go ahead. They're really small. How about can do. We can kind of put a hyphen sort of in there. Right. I'll give you that okay. So I'll say can

do maybe with a little dose of common sense.

I've always thought it was, unique, maybe a little bit to Nebraska that we tend to look at things from. How can I not how can't I? And we've always been can do. It's, George Norris is, part and parcel of that. Right? We can have a camera, it can be successful. We can have an all public power state.

And it's beneficial for the people, not the way everybody else does it. But, we find a way to do things our way, and maybe even for the benefit of Nebraskans, I think, that's good for we, not good for me. I think I heard maybe the governor even stated a little bit different. Differently? What is it good for?

Nebraska? Is that more important than just good for me? And that's that's, kind of a cool thing, I think you see that,

exudes from Nebraska. It can do not only explains and describes Nebraska, frankly, it explains and describes central. So that's awesome. So yeah, maybe I'm maybe I'm biased. Yeah. That's that's okay. You should do that.

Thanks for joining. Please keep on listening to 93 of the podcast as we release additional episodes on Nebraska. It's great. Communities. Nebraska is number one industry, agriculture and the folks who make it happen. Thanks.

This has been 93. The podcast sponsored by Nebraska's law firm Rembolt Ludtke