WaterClaim on LB701

Dear Editor,

A lot of people assume that the new water bill is something that WaterClaim supports or caused to happen because we supported Mark Christensen in his election bid and because Mark Christensen was an employee of WaterClaim.

WaterClaim did support Mark Christensen in his successful election bid. We did pay Mark a salary, both before and after the election.  We did draft the first two versions of the water bill, LB 701. 

However, Mark Christensen is no longer an employee of WaterClaim. He resigned from WaterClaim on April 1. 

The third version of the bill and the one that the Legislature heard and passed was a bill drafted by the NRDs and was very different from what Sen. Christensen campaigned for and what WaterClaim supported.

The NRD version, which Sen. Christensen ended up adopting and supporting, is much more expensive and will likely move water out of the basin instead of bringing it in. 

The good news is that the NRD version of LB701 has a chance of resolving the problem. WaterClaim has long said it is important for Nebraska to take action to avoid letting a Federal judge decide our fate.

However, WaterClaim strongly preferred a different way of resolving the problem than what the NRDs and Sen. Mark Christensen ended up choosing. 

The public elected the NRDs. Our elected representatives asked for the authority to dramatically raise taxes, to spend the money, and to choose how to keep Kansas happy. The Legislature agreed to give them that authority.

WaterClaim respects the authority of our elected representatives to make the decisions. That doesn't mean we like how or what they are doing. But we, like everyone else, have only one practical way to change what is happening, and that is through the ballot box. 

WaterClaim is available to help the NRDs successfully implement the policies they have chosen. The job the NRDs now have will not be easy.

Buying surface water alone may not be enough.  How much money they pay for the surface water may determine if they have enough money to do the other things that must also be done. 

I have written up a much more detailed history of what happened, why it happened the way it did, and what we might expect in the future.  Because of the length, it is only practical to put that on the WaterClaim site:  www.waterclaim.org

 **Steve Smith,

Director, WaterClaim

Imperial