Drought has severly lowered the water levels of the lake leaving Martin Bay, located on the north end of Kingsley Dam on the east end of the lake dry, cracked and filled with tumbleweeds.

 
    Findings from three new studies will roll out in coming weeks and months on the value of Nebraska's water and environment. The reports will put price tags on hot-button questions such as:
What if Lake McConaughy could be drained only so far by irrigators, leaving more water in the lake for recreation?
What if the Cornhusker State grew a few more pheasants and a bit less corn?
What if Nebraska farmers irrigated less than the 8.1 million acres of cropland they now water?
"People grumble . . . (but) the good news is, we do have a lot of water, and we need to manage it for all of these uses," said Dayle Williamson of Lincoln, who led the former State Natural Resources Commission for 30 years until he retired in 2001.
The studies will soon make waves across Nebraska's political landscape.
 

    The Nebraska Policy Institute plans to reveal its findings Oct. 31 on the impact of irrigation in the state's economy.
Two weeks later, an agricultural economist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln plans to release a study encouraged by Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., into the potential economic justification of leaving more water in Lake McConaughy for recreation. The lake is the state's largest irrigation reservoir.
   

    Finally, a coalition of organizations led by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission recently hired an Oregon economist to complete a study by next June on how outdoor recreation contributes to Nebraska's economy and how it would change if water and land were used differently.
 

    Project coordinator Don Gabelhouse, fisheries division administrator for the Game and Parks Commission, wants the study to answer this question: To what extent do relationships existing between the West's economy and its mountains, seashores and forests also apply to Nebraska?
 

    He wonders if increased access to healthy prairies and reservoirs and streams with consistent water levels would attract more people to live in central and western Nebraska.
 

    Ernie Niemi of