Christensen sees flaws in opponent's position on water

Thursday, October 5, 2006

44th District legislative candidate Mark Christensen is calling his opponent's position on water laws dangerous.

"According to a KRVN story, during his first listening tour stop in Imperial, Frank Shoemaker publicly stated that he believes the Nebraska water laws should be changed to combine ground and surface water rules. If that is done, then groundwater irrigation will likely suffer the same fate as what is currently happening in Colorado," Christensen said.

Christensen said his concern is that Shoemaker does not understand the consequences of combining surface and ground water laws.

It would cause the immediate shut down of most irrigation in the area as well as a significant devaluation in the effected land.

Christensen said he knows that the 44th District "simply cannot stand to lose millions in net worth due to devaluation of irrigated land. "Our schools are dependent on maintaining a solid valuation," Mark said.

A good portion of McCook's economy comes from surrounding communities throughout the 44th District, he said.

Most of those communities are 60-70 percent agriculturally driven.

"If we devastate the economies of smaller communities largely dependent on groundwater irrigation, we are likely to create circumstances that are harmful to McCook's economy as well. I don't want to see any of that happen," Christensen said.

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