The Middle Republican Natural Resources District is responsible
for the protection of the natural resources
and assists landowners in planning, funding,
and applying conservation practices.

Flow Meters & Water Usage

Reading & Servicing | Flow Meter Troubleshooting Tips | Reading Your Meter | Irrigation Formula | Irrigation Definitions | History

Reading & Servicing

The MRNRD Ground Water Management Area Rules and Regulations state that all regulated wells (wells that pump more than 50 gallons per minute) must have a flow meter installed. Contact the MRNRD office immediately if you still need to meter your well.

Meters throughout the district will be read annually between November 1 and December 31.

Meters will be serviced once every three years according to the following schedule:

2011 Red Willow County
2012 Hitchcock and Hayes County
2013 Frontier and Lincoln County

Flow Meter Troubleshooting Tips

• Condensation Under Lens: Flow Meter should be repaired immediately to prevent further damage to meter.
• Lid Broken or Missing: Lid should be replaced or meter cap installed to prevent excessive heat buildup in meter.
• Gray Dust on Dial Face: Excessive vibration is damaging meter. Meter may need to be relocated.
• Meter Not Turning: Contact NRD immediately.

Reading Your Meter

	Face 1 Example Gallons to Acre-Inches Left: Standard 8" dial face with gallon totalizer. Add 2 zeros to 6-digit dial face reading. Gallons = 89,057,200
EXAMPLE:
Present meter reading Subtract previous reading Total Gallons Used	89,057,200 gallons 79,488,700 gallons 9,568,500 gallons
To Convert gallons to acre-inches, Divide gallons used (9,568,500) by 27,154 9,568,500 divided by 27,154 equals 352.38 acre-inches To Figure Acre Inches Used, Divide acre-inches by acres in field by (example: 20 acres) 352.38 acre-inches divided by 20 acres = 17.619 acre-inches applied
	Face 2 Example Acre-Feet to Acre-Inches Left: Dial face with acre feet totalizer. Place a decimal point three places to the left. Acre Feet = 974.602`
EXAMPLE:
Present meter reading Subtract previous reading Total acre-feet used	974.602 acre-feet 963.176 acre-feet 11.426 acre-feet
To Convert acre-feet to gallons, multiply acre-feet used (11.246) by 12 11.426 multiplied by 12 equals 137.112 acre-inches To Figure Acre Inches Used, Divide acre-inches by acres in field by (example: 8 acres) 137.112 acre-inches divided by 8 acres = 17.139 acre-inches applied

Irrigation Formula

How many inches of water is your field receiving from irrigation? To figure, use this formula:

Irrigation Definitions

Evapotranspiration (ET) - Crop water use plus evaporation.

Available Water Capacity (AWC) - Water available to plants in the root zone.

Field Capacity (FC) - Soil profile is full, will not hold more water.

Minimum Balance (MB) - Minimum soil moisture content needed to avoid crop stress. stress.

Permanent Wilting Point (PWP) - The soil’s water content is so low that the plant cannot recover.

Deep Percolation (DP) - Excess water the soil can’t hold. Gravity pulls excess water below point where plant roots can’t reach...

History

The Middle Republican NRD Ground Water Management Area Integrated Management Plan was initiated in 2005 to serve the following purposes:

• To protect ground water quality,
• To allow for the management of hydrologically-connected ground and surface water,
• To sustain a balance between water uses and water supplies so that the economic viability, social and environmental health, safety and welfare of the river basin can be achieved and maintained for both the near term and the long term.