Irrigation districts sue state over water diverted to Kansas - Omaha.com
Irrigation districts sue state over water diverted to Kansas - Omaha.com
Sunday, February 21, 2016
By David Hendee / World-Herald staff writer
CAMBRIDGE, Neb. — Nebraska’s legal feuding with Kansas over the Republican River may be over for now, but trouble continues to brew in the basin.
Two irrigation districts whose farmers draw water from the river to irrigate cropland are seeking damages from the state for lost irrigation water in 2013 and 2014.
The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources ordered that water bypass the Frenchman Cambridge and Bostwick Irrigation Districts’ storage reservoirs and diversion dams during those two years.
The districts have filed lawsuits saying the water was sent to Kansas at the expense of their members’ crops to help Nebraska comply with an interstate compact governing the river.
The Frenchman Cambridge district also is suing the Department of Natural Resources and three Republican River natural resources districts challenging plans they say would permit increased groundwater pumping in the basin. Omaha attorney David Domina represents the Frenchman Cambridge district.
Keep Our Water in Lincoln County
A landowner near property owned by the Nebraska Cooperative Republican Platte Enhancement project has posted signs in opposition to the initiative to enhance flows in the Republican River.
