Posted on 07/17/2025 10:34:57 AM PDT by DFG
Nebraska state leaders filed a lawsuit against Colorado on Wednesday seeking to have the U.S. Supreme Court assert the Cornhusker State’s century-old water rights to the South Platte River that crosses state lines.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, announcing the legal action at a news conference with Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and other state and local officials, said, “Every drop of water matters.”
Pillen and Hilgers accused Colorado officials of siphoning off more and more water every day, even as Nebraska had been “nice” with Colorado, which has seen increases in housing, agricultural and business development along the waterway.
“We’re here to put our gloves on,” Pillen said, to defend what he called a “multi-generation investment” afforded under the South Platte River Compact that took effect in 1926.
“We’re going to fight like heck. We’re going to get every drop of water,” Pillen continued Wednesday. “We’ve been losing to Colorado on this issue for too long. It’s time we win.”
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser called Wednesday’s lawsuit “unfortunate” and said Pillen and Hilgers “put politics above farming communities and the regional agricultural economy.”
“The failure to look for reasonable solutions and to turn to litigation is both unfortunate and predictable given the misguided effort driving the proposed canal,” Weiser said in a statement.
‘They want everything’ Hilgers said his team had exercised all options in communications with Weiser’s office before filing the 55-page complaint before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The complaint accuses Colorado of violating the interstate compact between Colorado and Nebraska, which was ratified in the states in 1923 and enacted federally in 1926. Under the agreement, Nebraska is entitled to at least 120 cubic feet of water per second each day of the summer, during irrigation season.
Hilgers said it’s hard to say precisely how long more water than allowed has been taken and that it’s getting worse, an assertion Colorado officials denied in 2022. So far this summer, Hilgers said, Nebraska has gotten its mandated water flows about half the time, averaging 75 cubic feet per second of water daily.
Nebraska’s Western Irrigation District was also recently forced to shut off the majority of its surface water irrigation due to a lack of water from the South Platte River, despite the compact, according to the lawsuit.
Pillen said Colorado is storing more water for its “upstream economy,” which he said comes at the expense of Colorado and Nebraska farmers, with Nebraska’s western neighbors having “no interest in anything being fair and just.”
“They want absolutely everything, they’re even stealing the water from their own farmers, for crying out loud,” Pillen told reporters.
‘All-front war’ The interstate compact also allows Nebraska to construct the “Perkins County Canal,” a major water project through Keith County and into Colorado that would allow Nebraska to divert at least 500 cubic feet of water per second in the winter, during non-irrigation season.
Nebraska is also afforded “eminent domain” over some Colorado land to build the canal, meaning the state could seize private land if needed.
State lawmakers, to the tune of more than $600 million, have approved funding to build a canal up to 1,000 cubic feet of water per second to capture more water flow in above-average water years. Nebraska officials say newly captured water would flow statewide and is not just focused on western Nebraska.
According to the court filing, Nebraska officials in January tried to purchase land from landowners in Sedgwick County, Colorado, at 115% of fair market value, deals that ultimately fell through. Nebraska pledged to take land “only if the parties failed to reach amicable terms.”
Hilgers said the situation escalated to an “all-front war” in the past year, with Hilgers and Pillen accusing Colorado officials of stepping up opposition, including through local Colorado landowners.
Nebraska-Colorado ‘impasse’ reached Hilgers said he and his team have had many conversations with their Colorado counterparts but are at an “impasse,” largely over the project’s scope, including canal size, location and Nebraska’s eminent domain rights, a provision Weiser has said he is ready to challenge Nebraska on.
The eminent domain provisions are believed to be one of a kind among any interstate compacts in the nation’s history, according to Hilgers.
“There is no alternative forum capable of fully resolving the claims Nebraska asserts against Colorado, which are of such seriousness and dignity as to justify the exercise of the court’s jurisdiction,” the complaint to the Supreme Court states.
Weiser said that if the Supreme Court does greenlight the “wasteful project,” it will force Colorado water users to build additional projects to lessen the impact of the canal. He encouraged “collaboration and collaboration, rather than litigation,” which could lead to a “durable and thoughtful solution” that increases regional resiliency and agricultural strength.
In 2022, a spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called the project a “canal to nowhere” and a “boondoggle.”
Polis on Wednesday called the lawsuit “meritless” and said the state had continued to meet with Nebraska in “good faith” despite its efforts to intimidate some Colorado landowners. He reasserted that his state has always complied with the South Platte River Compact.
“This escalation by Nebraska is needless, and Colorado will take all steps necessary to aggressively defend Colorado water users, landowners, and our rural economy,” Polis said in a statement.
Pillen, asked whether he had talked to Polis about the canal or lawsuit, said plainly: “No.”
“The bottom line: He and I do not agree one iota. And there’s no sense in further conversations,” Pillen said. “I’m not playing goober politics on this. We’re going to fight for Nebraska.”
Former Gov. Pete Ricketts, now a Republican U.S. senator for Nebraska, unearthed and reinvigorated the compact in 2022 with Hilgers, the then-speaker of the Legislature.
Hilgers said it was probably always “inevitable” that the U.S. Supreme Court would decide the issue. He acknowledged that while a minority of state senators have tried to claw back funding for the Perkins County Canal, he anticipated that future efforts to do so would continue to fail.
‘The future of Nebraska’ Jesse Bradley, director of the newly merged Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment as of July 1, said his team would continue to move forward with the project, parallel to the litigation, estimating that permitting and design would finish by 2028 for construction to begin.
The hope is that water will flow through the new canal no later than 2032.
“This is critical to the future of Nebraska,” Bradley said. “We will continue to push forward aggressively.”
Also joining Wednesday’s news conference were representatives of the Nebraska Public Power District, Central Platte Natural Resources District, Central Nebraska Power and Irrigation District, Twin Platte Natural Resources District, the Nebraska Western Irrigation District, the South Platte Natural Resources District and the state’s chief water officer, Matt Manning.
Hilgers estimated the state lawsuit could cost a couple of million dollars, including hiring outside experts or legal counsel, and take three to five years before the Supreme Court decides.
Pillen said Nebraska would not “save pennies” on the project and would have the “A Team 100% of the time” to win, “not a shadow of a doubt.”
Weiser estimated that “when the dust finally settles,” more than a billion dollars would be spent over a possible decade of litigation, and “no one in Nebraska or Colorado will be better off.”
Hilgers said he’s thankful the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the issue.
“We could maybe not get everything we want in front of the Supreme Court. But if we don’t file, we will lose. Period, full stop,” Hilgers said. “And what we will lose will so far outstrip the cost of this particular project that will really be a ‘shame on us’ moment if we don’t actually follow through.”
The water originates in Colorado. All of the water in Colorado comes from the sky. Said water then flows into neighboring states. You can not cut off Colorado. Colorado could cut off Nebraska. Except that Gov. Polis has stated that Colorado would not do such a thing. The last time CU played The Corn in Football 🏈 The CU Team won.
Colorado should keep doing their leftists policies and the demand for water will greatly reduce as scores of people move out.
They both should have a national guard. Just let them go for it.
The expansion on the eastern slope of Colorado has driven this issue. The Arkansas, the water rights for the farmers downstream have been purchased and most of the agricultural land now unused and dry. The Fountain is drained and refilled with water following Treatment. The South Platte, has been drained, but is now causing downstream water issues. The Eastern slope has even managed to attempt to get water rights on the Western slope and pump water over the continental divide. Every drop of water, even rain water and underground water, is claimed by someone in Colorado. Meters are placed even on deep well pumps to charge for the water.
Nebraska has to fight for it’s agriculture, it’s paramount to survival, and that’s based upon the Platte River watershed. I am not shocked by the lawsuit.
I can see lawyers being the ones complicating and hindering the 1926 agreement to earn their wealth.
Wrong. More people are moving into Colorado. Especially from foreign countries. The scenery is spectacular. Those disgusted with the leftism are moving out. Yet the inflows are greater. The Colorado population is increasing.
Whiskey is for drinking; Water is for fighting.
POLIS IS A TOTAL IDIOT
“Cut off Colorado. Let ‘em dry up.”
I get my water from the Rockies but if you want to cut off all the ranchers OK. Dimbulb.
“Those disgusted with the leftism are moving out. “
Except those of us that are trapped. They’re turning our towns and cities into progressive hellholes.
“POLIS IS A TOTAL IDIOT”
And a knobgobbler.
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