Report: States near river settlement

The Republican River was nearly bone dry last summer near McCook.

LINCOLN -- Assistant Attorney General Dave Cookson declined to comment on reports Nebraska and Kansas were near a settlement in the Republican River dispute, citing a Supreme Court order.

Neither would Attorney General Don Stenberg, but he did say an announcement on the lawsuit was expected next week.

"The governor and I are scheduling a news conference for Monday to discuss the Republican River situation," Stenberg said Thursday.

Gov. Mike Johanns declined to elaborate. When asked earlier Thursday about a possible settlement, Johanns smiled and said, "Good question."

Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall could not immediately be reached for comment.

Speaker of the Legislature in Nebraska, Sen. Curt Bromm of Wahoo, said an accord had been reached with Kansas that hopefully would result in dismissal of the lawsuit.

The agreement would increase monitoring of water use in Kansas and Nebraska, Bromm said.

"We'll have some requirements to curtail our usage," Bromm said.

Bromm said the agreement would end costly litigation and would not require Nebraska to pay a lump sum settlement.

Kansas filed its lawsuit in 1998, accusing Nebraska of allowing irrigators to divert more than their legal share of the river's water.

Kansas argued that Nebraska breached the compact by allowing the proliferation and use of thousands of wells connected to the river and its tributaries along the state's southern border.

The 1943 compact agreement spelled out distribution of the Republican River's waters, with Nebraska getting 49 percent, Kansas 40 percent and Colorado 11 percent.

Nebraska has argued that groundwater use is not regulated by the compact, which also was signed by Colorado, because it was signed before deep-well irrigation was used in the river basin.

Last year, the special master hearing the case ruled that he would not count the bulk of water pumped from irrigation wells in Nebraska in deciding the case.

Special Master Vincent McKusick, who was appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, ruled that he would not count water pumped from wells before 1994 in deciding the case.

Nebraska has argued that Kansas has received its full allocation of water from the Republican River each year with the exception of 1992, when there was a drought.

Natural Resources Districts along the river have phased in well metering and enacted drilling moratiums.

Earlier this month, the Lower Republican Natural Resources District prohibited farmers from drilling any large wells for at least three years.