About 300 farmers who pump irrigation water out of the Big Blue River in southeast Nebraska won't be able to do so until further notice, because water levels are too low.

The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources sent shut-off notices
Monday to farmers with surface water rights issued after Nov. 1, 1968.

Keith Paulsen, head of the agency's Lincoln field office, says the orders were necessary to comply with a compact between Nebraska and Kansas that requires a certain amount of water to flow across state lines in the Big Blue and Little Blue basins.

The last time the state closed the Big Blue River to comply with the compact was in 2006; for the Little Blue, it was 2008.