Bazile Groundwater Management Area (BGMA)

The Bazile Groundwater Management Area (BGMA) is comprised of land located within four Natural Resources Districts (NRDs) including the Lewis and Clark NRD, Lower Elkhorn NRD, Lower Niobrara NRD, and the Upper Elkhorn NRD. Within these four NRDs, the BGMA includes parts of three counties: Antelope, Knox and Pierce and the towns of Bazile Mills, Brunswick, Creighton, Foster, Orchard, Osmond, Plainview, Royal, Wausa, and Winnetoon. The BGMA was started by local producers and the NRDs to address rising nitrate levels in area communities and domestic wells.

The BGMA encompasses 21 entire townships for a total of 756 square miles. The BGMA was originally identified as the Bazile Triangle area of concern in the late 1980s as a result of nitrate contamination affecting municipal wells in the vicinity of the Villages of Brunswick, Creighton, Orchard, Osmond, Plainview, Royal, and Wausa Nebraska. The BGMA as outlined today encompasses the Bazile Triangle as well as the rest of each township the original triangle cut in half. Groundwater in the BGMA currently supplies water resources to ten communities and over seven thousand area residents. The area was given the informal name “Bazile Triangle” due to the Bazile Creek drainage in the center.

Nebraska has abundant groundwater. Approximately 85 percent of the state’s residents rely on groundwater as their drinking water source, and groundwater is the primary source for agricultural irrigation water. In the Bazile Groundwater Management Area (BGMA), groundwater is the source of all public drinking water and the primary source of agricultural irrigation water. Rural residents primarily depend on shallow wells for their domestic water supply.

Because of predominantly sandy soils in the BGMA, precipitation and irrigation water can infiltrate quickly and deeply. Approximately 50 percent of the BGMA has a depth to groundwater less than 100 feet. The majority of the remaining area has a depth to groundwater less than 200 feet. Further, due to the connection between shallow groundwater and surface water, the water quality of each is interconnected. All streams in the BGMA are gaining streams, that is, all streams gain water from groundwater discharge. Therefore, shallow groundwater contamination is quickly transferred to surface water.

Fertilizers containing nitrogen are applied to the row crops in the BGMA as well as to lawns, parklands and golf courses to improve plant growth. Nitrogen in the form of nitrate is highly mobile in water. In sandy soils, nitrate is quickly leached below the root zone and eventually to groundwater when more nitrogen is applied than plants can absorb or when it is leached below the root zone by precipitation or irrigation water before plants can absorb it. Sandy soils, shallow depth to groundwater and extensive application of nitrogen fertilizer and irrigation water make the BGMA aquifer particularly vulnerable to nitrate contamination.

Click here to review the Bazile Groundwater Management Area Plan

Click here for the BGMA boundary map

Click here to visit the official BGMA Website

Field Days

Tuesday, July 1st 
Pivot Bio Field Day with Roger Lechtenberg

Tuesday, July 8th 
Regenerative Ag Field Day with Junior Pfanstiel (co-hosted by BGMA and Bow Creek Watershed Project)
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Register Here

Wednesday, July 9th 
Nebraska 4Rs Nutrient Stewardship Field Day
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Thursday, July 17th 
Field Demonstration: Cover Cropping for Cattle Field Day

Bus Tours

Tuesday, August 12th 
Green Cover Field Day & Hipp Hinrichs Farm Tour
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Monday, August 25th 
Wednesday, August 27th - Dakotas Research Farms & Conservation Farms 
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Conferences

Thursday, October 23rd 
2025 Nebraska Environmental Public Health Summit
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Friday, November 21st 
17th Annual AgCeptional Women's Conference
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Tuesday, December 16th 
2nd Annual Northeast Nebraska Ag Conference w/ Keynote Speaker John Kempf

Educational Opportunities Scheduled Events in 2025 Flyer

Regen Ag Field Day to Demonstrate Cover Crops, Regenerative Strips

Bazile Groundwater Management Area Project and Bow Creek Watershed Project are teaming up with Junior Pfanstiel to host a Regenerative Ag Field Day on Tuesday, July 8th! The project involves planting green 4 rows of corn 10 ft wide and leaving 10 ft of cover crops (regen strips) throughout the field. The regen strips will then be roller crimped in the whole field. This process will provide weed control and fertility to the corn. A warm season diverse cover mix will then be drilled into the regen strips. Later in the season, a cool season diverse cover mix will be established. Strips will be rotationally grazed down to 50% before moving to the next one.

During this event, we plan to have the following discussions:

• Junior Pfanstiel, Outside the Box Agronomy, LLC, will talk about his objective and thought process in the planning, the why, and just what his expectations are. Nathan Choat of Green Cover Crops will speak directly on the planned mixes that were chosen.
• Ben Beckman, UNL Livestock Extension Educator, will talk about the mixes and what each mix brings to the prescribed grazing and their benefits.
• Caro Cordova, Statewide Soil Health Specialist and UNL Assistant Professor, will talk about the benefits and soil health implementations, discuss the root pit and what it means, and will have the biomass analysis available to discuss how it ties into the entire soil health complex.
• Amy Timmerman, UNL Cropping Extension Educator, will be on hand to demonstrate a water infiltration kit and how it impacts your soil health and potential plant yield.

For the established cover crops, we will have a root pit opened to see just how far down the roots were established prior to being crimped! We will also be showcasing Junior’s equipment (crimper, drill and inter-seeder highboy).

Register at: https://forms.gle/8BkwAsCDn1q7TEFCA 

This field day is sponsored and produced by Outside the Box Agronomy, UNL Extension, Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE), Nebraska Department of Water, Environment, & Energy, and the Lewis & Clark NRD, the Lower Elkhorn NRD, the Lower Niobrara NRD, and the Upper Elkhorn NRD.