Tidyman responds to Beutler remarks

Dear Senator Beutler,

We the residents of Southwest Nebraska would like to thank you and the other state legislators for "wrestling with the problem" of meeting the compact agreements with Kansas over water usage.

Clearly you've heard about the "problem." It's unfortunate you have been unwilling to understand the problem.

Pull up a chair. Let's sit down and talk.

If I sound condescending, know that your remarks on the front page of the paper have had the same tone.

First, your accusation is that the irrigators of this area have "put the Legislature over a barrel" and demanded that the Legislature "bail [rural Nebraska] out of the situation." It sounds like we should first define whom the "problem" belongs to.

Does the problem belong to the individual irrigators of Southwest Nebraska, or does it belong to the State of Nebraska? The water itself has been declared a "resource of the State." It is the State of Nebraska, not the individual irrigators of this area, which lays claim to the water itself.

It was the State of Nebraska, not the individual irrigators of this area, which signed the Republican River Compact in December of 1942.

It was the State of Nebraska whose attorneys and representatives negotiated the settlement with Kansas in December of 2002.

For the State of Nebraska to now wash the blood from its hands, to pretend to be innocent, and to feign surprise that the State might have anything to do with the situation is incredulous.

Second, in your own words, the heroic state legislators have "wrestled with the problem," but rural Nebraska has "ignored the solution." Come out for a visit sometime.

We'd like to show you around.

No one out here has been able to "ignore" the situation at all.

We have a moratorium on drilling in all area NRD's.

Our irrigation ditches are dry and the lakes are the lowest in history.

We have meters on every well and water restrictions in every NRD.

Our surface irrigators are paying for ditches that have no water in them.

Yet our livelihood still depends on our ability to grow crops.

We have the same rugged spirit as our grandparents who broke this sod, and we will not be broken ourselves.

Irrigators have voluntarily idled an average of five to ten percent of their land in order to conserve water.

Last year, irrigators in the Middle Republican used less than 9" of the 13" they were allocated.

In the last year, we have retired 40,000 irrigated acres into CREP and EQIP.

We have planted drought-resistant hybrids.

We have conserved every drop of water we can.

We have built terraces and implemented no-till, eco-fallow, and re-use pits--all of which recharge the aquifer and control evaporation.

Our underground drip irrigation systems allow for no evaporation at all.

We have not ignored the solution, Senator.

We are shaping new solutions every day.

Furthermore, we must take a realistic look at the settlement which the State of Nebraska agreed to.

The Republican River simply does not have the water in it to meet the settlement with Kansas in water-short years.

The water isn't there in dry years.

The way that we will meet the State's obligations is by storing up water in wet years and releasing the water in dry years.

But it must be remembered that the settlement with Kansas was reached at the start of a prolonged drought.

The only way the State will be able to meet its obligation now is to buy water out of the Harlan.

The way the settlement was written, we must wait until a wet year to begin to balance our obligation with Kansas.

These are the things the legislature of the good State of Nebraska will have to do to avoid another lawsuit with Kansas:

1. Work with Kansas.

Preserve their good will and appeal to them with common sense.

2. Understand the issues at hand. Recognize that rural Nebraska is not "ignoring solutions"--rather, the only solutions proposed have been generated here at home.

3. Work with rural Nebraskans and provide assistance as we continue to develop long-term solutions together.

4. Meet the short-term obligations with Kansas.

If the water doesn't exist in the Republican, the water to meet the State's obligation is going to have to come from the surface irrigators of the Harlan Reservoir.

This short-term solution will have to exist until the drought breaks and we are able to store water up for future years.

It is estimated that 30 percent of the jobs in this State depend on agriculture, and that 100% of agricultural jobs depend on water in some form.

Little can be gained by pitting one NRD against another, by pretending that our metropolitan areas have no stake in the agricultural economy of this State, or by pretending that the problem exists solely among the rural residents and that the State shouldn't have to be involved.

We've got a lot of work to do, and we're going to have to work together to get it done.

Respectfully,

Jeff Tidyman

McCook