Colorado has agreed to pay Nebraska $4 million in settling claims of using more than its share of Republican River water.
The settlement is the last piece of a complex puzzle of expensive legal wrangling over water in the river by Kansas — mostly with Nebraska, and to a lesser extent with Colorado — dating back more than two decades.
It builds upon recent collaborative water management initiatives among the three states and allows Nebraska and Colorado to continue to work cooperatively, said Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Attorney General Doug Peterson in a joint statement Wednesday.
The deal also helps avoid possible expensive and lengthy U.S. Supreme Court litigation like that waged by Kansas and Nebraska dating back more than two decades.
The negotiated $4 million settlement must be appropriated by the Colorado Legislature and paid by the end of this year, according to the settlement.
Ricketts recommended that the Nebraska Legislature invest the funds in conservation projects for rivers and streams in the Republican River basin. Nebraska irrigators in the region were affected by reduced supplies of water because of Colorado’s past years of overuse, he said.
Colorado has been in full compliance with an interstate compact governing how the states share the river since 2015.
Jasper Fanning, general manager of the Upper Republican Natural Resources District based in Imperial, Nebraska, said the states have been working well together in recent years.
“It’s good to see the states find a way to resolve these issues without going to court,’’ he said.
Steve Nelson of Axtell, president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau Association, said the settlement brings much-needed stability for farmers looking for certainty surrounding future water use in the basin.
Nebraska paid Kansas $5.5 million in damages three years ago to end a dispute over using more than its fair share of the river during the drought year 2006. Kansas had asked for $80 million. The Nebraska-Colorado part of the conflict was not addressed in the 2015 settlement.
