Local irrigators file class-action lawsuit
OMAHA, Neb. -- Four southwest Nebraska irrigators filed a class-action lawsuit against the State of Nebraska and the Department of Natural Resources for damages to their 2013, crops. Greg Hill of Furnas County, Brent Coffey of Harlan County, James Uerling of Red Willow County, and Warren Schaffert of Hitchcock County, filed the case in Furnas County District Court on July 31st.
Read the text of the lawsuit here.
The suit is filed on behalf of the four named farmers and a group of persons similarly situated, all of whom are water users of Frenchman Cambridge Irrigation District who have consented to be members of the Class.
The 19 page Complaint asserts that the irrigators each have a right to use water taken from them, and that those rights are superior to the rights of the State to take water for the purpose of passing it to Kansas to comply with the State's Republican River Compact obligations.
The irrigators contend their crops were damaged because they were denied by state action water that otherwise would have reached them through FCID canals and ditches in 2013. Damaged crops identified in the complaint include corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa.
The Complaint alleges that each irrigator in the Class was entitled to receive 18 acre inches of water from FCID. It contends the farmers were denied the water because the State caused it to bypass in the flow locations to reclamation dams and canals required to supply water to FCID and, in turn, get water to the farmers.
The suit does not contend the state lacked authority to divert the water. Instead, it claims the State must pay for the crop losses caused when water was diverted because the State decided to take this action.
Trial by jury is requested.