{"id":40546,"date":"2022-05-18T13:36:20","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T19:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-nebraska-jostle-over-water-rights-amid-drought\/"},"modified":"2022-05-18T19:36:20","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T19:36:20","slug":"colorado-nebraska-jostle-over-water-rights-amid-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-nebraska-jostle-over-water-rights-amid-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado, Nebraska jostle over water rights amid drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The South Platte River flows on April 28 in Fort Morgan. As climate change-fueled megadrought edges eastward, Nebraska wants to divert water in Colorado by invoking an obscure, 99-year-old compact between the states that allows Nebraska to seize Colorado land along the South Platte River to build a canal. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OVID \u2013 Shortly after daybreak on the high plains of northeastern Colorado, Don Schneider tinkers with seed-dispensing gear on a mammoth corn planter. The day\u2019s task: Carefully sowing hundreds of acres of seed between long rows of last year\u2019s desiccated stalks to ensure the irrigation water he\u2019s collected over the winter will last until harvest time.<\/p>\n

A two-hour\u2019s drive eastward, Steve Hanson, a fifth-generation Nebraska cattle breeder who also produces corn and other crops, is preparing to seed, having stored winter water to help ensure his products make it to market. Like Schneider and countless others in this semi-arid region, he wants his children and grandchildren to be able to work the rich soil homesteaded by their ancestors in the 1800s.<\/p>\n

Schneider and Hanson find themselves on opposite sides of a looming, politically-fraught dispute over water resembling the kind that until now has been reserved for the parched U.S. states along the Colorado River Basin.<\/p>\n

As climate change-fueled megadrought edges eastward, Nebraska\u2019s Republican-controlled Legislature this year voted to move forward with a plan that stunned Colorado state leaders. The Cornhusker State wants to divert water in Colorado by invoking an obscure, 99-year-old compact between the states that allows Nebraska to seize Colorado land along the South Platte River to build a canal.<\/p>\n

\"Don
Don Schneider drives a tractor to plant alfalfa and oats on his property Friday, April 29, 2022, in Ovid, Colo. Schneider and his neighbors take surplus South Platte water in winter to augment the wells they use to irrigate their crops in summer. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nebraska\u2019s plan underscores an increasing appetite throughout the West to preemptively secure water as winter snows and year-round rainfall diminish, forcing states to reallocate increasingly scarce flows in basins such as the South Platte and its better-known cousin, the Colorado River.<\/p>\n

Nebraska\u2019s Republican governor, Pete Ricketts, gave precious few details in calling for $500 million in cash reserves and one-time federal pandemic funds to be spent on the project, other than to say it will benefit agriculture, power generation and municipal drinking water. Ricketts decried proposals in Colorado to either siphon or store more South Platte water, especially in the rapidly-growing Denver metro area, saying they threaten Nebraska\u2019s water rights hundreds of miles downstream.<\/p>\n

The announcement sent Colorado officials scrambling to dust off the 1923 compact, which both Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court signed off on and still stands as the law of the land. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis vowed to \u201caggressively assert\u201d Colorado\u2019s water rights, and state lawmakers lambasted the proposal. GOP Rep. Richard Holtorf, an area cattleman, declared: \u201cYou give Nebraska what they\u2019re due but you don\u2019t give them much else.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Colorado is not going to legally challenge Nebraska\u2019s right to a canal under the compact, said Kevin Rein, Colorado\u2019s state engineer and director of the Colorado Division of Water Resources. \u201cThe other side of that coin is that we\u2019ll make every effort that their operation is in compliance with the compact\u201d and protects Colorado\u2019s rights, Rein said.<\/p>\n

The South Platte meanders 380 miles from the Rocky Mountains through the Colorado town of Julesburg at the Nebraska line. Depending on the season, it can seemingly disappear in parts, only to re-emerge downstream. It can become a torrent with heavy snowmelt or flooding. Cottonwood trees line its banks and sandbars create the illusion that it consists of multiple creeks in many places.<\/p>\n

\"Steve
Steve Hanson poses for a photo in front of one of his water pumping stations April 30 in Elsie, Neb. He raises beef cattle and grows corn, all of his irrigation water comes from the Ogallala Aquifer. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The compact allows Nebraska to build a canal to claim 500 cubic feet per second between mid-October and April, the non-irrigation season.<\/p>\n

Nebraska\u2019s Legislature allocated $53.5 million for an engineering study for the project, which as originally envisioned under the compact would begin somewhere near Schneider\u2019s farm in Ovid and run at least 24 miles into Nebraska\u2019s Perkins County, where Hanson\u2019s operations are headquartered.<\/p>\n

Hanson\u2019s all for it, saying the more water there is to irrigate his and his neighbors\u2019 expansive farms, the better their progeny can carry on that legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want my grandsons to be able to have the assurance that they can farm irrigated should they choose,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the word came out that the ditch might be coming, let me tell you, our area was elated,\u201d said Collin Malmkar, 79, who with his wife, Jeanne, 75, and their children grow corn, popcorn and peas on 15,000 acres in the Perkins County seat of Grant. Jeanne\u2019s great-grandfather worked on a failed 1898 effort to dig a canal from Ovid.<\/p>\n

Schneider, whose son Bradon also works the fields, is worried the project could kill his life\u2019s work in a region that\u2019s long struggled to keep its younger generations from leaving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we had to convert this to a dryland farm, I\u2019m not sure where we\u2019d start\u201d to downsize, said Schneider, 63. \u201cI\u2019d love to retire in a couple of years. But my 30-year-old son, what\u2019s he going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider and his neighbors take surplus South Platte water in winter to augment the wells they use to irrigate their crops in summer. That water, in turn, eventually makes its way back into the South Platte. If Nebraska claims that winter water under the compact, Schneider says the alternative \u2013 non-irrigated dryland farming \u2013 means reduced crop yields, fewer farms and fewer jobs.<\/p>\n

Both Hanson and Schneider \u2013 and many others in this region where occasional \u201cDonald Trump 2024\u201d billboards dot two-lane highways \u2013 don\u2019t like to use the words \u201cclimate change.\u201d The lack of moisture to work with speaks for itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething\u2019s changing, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what\u2019s really driving it. We usually get buried in snow, and we haven\u2019t seen those in years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019m not a 100% believer in it, some of the thoughts are that we\u2019re getting short on water because of climate change,\u201d Hanson said. Scientists have long warned that human-made climate change<\/a> has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years.<\/p>\n

Remnants of the 1898 effort to dig a canal can be seen in Julesburg, where grass-lined ditches run into the modern-day Julesburg cemetery, Interstate 76 and even the Colorado Welcome Center at the state line.<\/p>\n

Jay Goddard, a banker in Julesburg, walks the abandoned ditch on farmland he owns next to the cemetery and marvels at the effort put into it. His bank provides operating loans to farmers on both sides of the border to keep them running until harvest time.<\/p>\n

\"Jay
Jay Goddard, a regional president of a bank, stands in the path of the old canal attempt that cuts through his property April 28 in Julesburg. His bank provides operating loans to farmers on both sides of the border to keep them running until harvest time. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIf we lose any of our irrigation for our communities up and down the river, whether it\u2019s in the Nebraska side or the Colorado side, we lose farmers,\u201d Goddard said. \u201cWe lose kids in schools, our electric companies that serve us, the insurance agencies to the grain elevators, grocery stores to pharmacies. You know if we lose irrigation, the communities continue to dry up. Literally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider echoes the same worries in his role as a Sedgewick County commissioner. Tax revenue plummeted after Ovid\u2019s old sugar beet factory closed; the county sheriff recently took a higher-paying job closer to the Front Range in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t buy a deputy,\u201d Schneider says.<\/p>\n

Farmers on both sides emphasize they\u2019d like to see a workaround that serves everybody. All agree that a canal project will be years in the making \u2013 and that if disputes arise, attorneys specializing in the intricacies of water law or eminent domain could have a field day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll see it in my lifetime,\u201d Schneider says. But he adds: \u201c(Gov. Pete) Ricketts has confounded everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Grant Schulte in Lincoln, Nebraska contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Don
Don Schneider stands in front of an augmentation pond on his property April 29 in Ovid. He pumps water from a shallow aquifer for irrigation and uses supply from the South Platte River to replenish the wells. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Peterson Ditch that carries water from the South Platte River to Don Schneider's property in Ovid. As climate change-fueled megadrought edges eastward, Nebraska wants to divert water in Colorado by invoking an obscure, 99-year-old compact between the states that allows Nebraska to seize Colorado land along the South Platte River to build a canal. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Don
Don Schneider monitors as his son Bradon works a corn planter Friday in Ovid. They pump water from a shallow aquifer for irrigation and use supply from the South Platte River to replenish the wells. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A pivot irrigation system stands on Steve Hanson\u2019s corn field after a heavy rain April 30 in Elsie, Neb. He raises beef cattle and grows corn, all of his irrigated water coming from the Ogallala Aquifer. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Water
Water pipes lie dormant on Don Schneider\u2019s property April 29 in Ovid. He pumps water from a shallow aquifer for irrigation and uses supply from the South Platte River to replenish the wells. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jeanne
Jeanne Malmkar, 75, and her husband, Collin, 79, examine a map of the original canal plan given to her by her grandfather April 30 in Grant, Neb. Her great-grandfather worked on a failed 1898 effort to dig a canal from Ovid. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A corn field is seen on Don Schneider\u2019s property April 29 in Ovid. Schneider and his neighbors take surplus South Platte water in winter to augment the wells they use to irrigate their crops in summer. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Platte River flows on April 28 in Fort Morgan. As climate change-fueled megadrought edges eastward, Nebraska wants to divert water in Colorado by invoking an obscure, 99-year-old compact between the states that allows Nebraska to seize Colorado land along the South Platte River to build a canal. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press)Brittany Peterson OVID \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,402,295],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-drought","tag-water"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40546"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}