Open Letter
Dear Senator
You are about to pass LB 701. There is one huge item the bill does not address that is of great importance to the guy at the end of the line.
Nebraska’s accumulated overage on its water allowance for the Republican River Basin is 136,000 acre feet. According to the agreement with Kansas, that overage must be erased by the end of 2007. There is nothing in LB 701 that gives any direction regarding this accumulated overage. That means the Legislature, which is responsible for setting policy, is ignoring the issue and letting the Governor and NRDs decide how to handle the issue. Neither of those parties are giving any indication of what they might do.
At the end of the day, it is the individual who will make the adjustment in the amount of water they use. It is the individual that will pay whatever tax burden that is placed on them. We would like to have an idea of what to expect.
We have no way of causing the Governor or the NRDs to answer the question or even giving us a hint. How will the existing overage be addressed? Will the State pay 100% of the damages and that will be the end of it? Will the State pay damages and ask the NRDs to use less water as punishment? Will we all wait for a judge to make the decision for us? Or will the Governor impose one of many other possible scenarios?
We ask that the Legislature, which has oversight over the DNR and the NRDs and who is responsible for making policy, at least mention the subject.