News from neighbors
Nebraska dusts off century-old plan to take water from near Ovid
STERLING JOURNAL-ADVOCATE, Jan. 12 — “The water world was rocked yesterday.” That’s how Joe Frank, manager of the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District, opened Tuesday’s meeting of the district’s executive committee.
Frank was referring to an announcement Monday that Nebraska officials apparently intend to invoke a clause in the nearly-hundred-year-old South Platte River Compact that would pull water out of the South Platte River near Ovid and send it into Perkins County, Nebraska, for irrigation.
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts announced the plan Monday during a press conference in which he claimed the state needs to protect its rights to South Platte River water by pulling the trigger on a project known as the Perkins County Canal.
That project actually is provided for in the 1923 water compact between Colorado and Nebraska, which spells out each state’s rights and responsibilities in sharing the river. Even before the compact was negotiated — the exact time frame isn’t known, but it was sometime before World War I — several miles of the Perkins Canal were dug, sections of which still can be seen along the north side of Interstate 76 between Julesburg and Ovid.
In a press release issued after Ricketts’ announcement, the governor characterized Nebraska’s water rights as “being threatened” by development in Colorado.
“The governor highlighted the emerging need to protect Nebraska’s South Platte River water supplies, which are being threatened by planned developments in Colorado,” the press release said. “Funding for the project will be included in the Governor’s proposed budget that he will share with the Legislature later this week.”
The “planned developments” apparently refers to a laundry list of some 282 possible ways excess water in the South Platte could be stored to help meet population growth along Colorado’s I-25 corridor. That list appeared in a draft report issued last year and was posted on the internet for public comment. It’s possible Nebraska officials have just recently seen the report, and it startled them into dusting off the Perkins Canal plan. The problem is, that report doesn’t actually list projects that can be done.
“It’s just a bunch of ideas that have been thrown out there, it’s a laundry of ideas, and nobody knows which ones are even feasible,” Frank said.
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