Credit the mayor this winter with trying to shed more light on the issue and see if there were any solutions to be discovered.

This week's city council dewatering study session did indeed turn up a clever idea of using Grand Island water discharged from high groundwater areas to be used as a potential solution to the water pumping moratorium on the Platte River. New pumps drilled into the Platte River area must have an offset to equal the water being used. With water rights being a suddenly valuable commodity in both commercial and agricultural projects, it seems there may be a way to turn Grand Island's problem into a solution for the pumping moratorium.

The Central Platte Natural Resources District, according to NRD project manager Milt Moravek, may be able to purchase Grand Island's discharged water to offset the water needed to provide for endangered species of birds and fish. It is significant money as much as $500,000 annually, which could cover the annual operating cost of a dewatering project for the city. There may be others that also could benefit from such an offset, such as ethanol plants or other industrial needs.

Also revealed was the fact that the original project estimate may have been overestimated because surveys indicate that most of the problem is in southern Grand Island, meaning the original project could be rescaled to less than half of the original size.

Clearly there is much to be done before any dewatering solution is identified, but the study session did give some hope that the issue can involve less financial pain than originally believed for those impacted by the high water levels.