TOPEKA, Kan.—Kansas asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to force Nebraska to stop using the Republican River to irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, insisting that the state is violating a multistate water-use agreement.
Kansas Attorney General Steve Six filed a petition in a long-running dispute between the neighboring states over the river. Kansas officials contend that Nebraska is violating a 2003 decree from the high court and owes the state $72 million in damages.
“Nebraska isn’t listening,” said Six’s spokesman, Gavin Young. “Our only remaining recourse is to return to the court.”
Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said his state has been in compliance with the agreement since 2006. Last year, an arbitrator appointed by both states rejected nearly all of Kansas’ claims for monetary damages in a nonbinding ruling.
“We are prepared to vigorously defend the state,” Bruning said in a statement Tuesday.
If Kansas prevails, Nebraska will be forced to stop irrigating about 500,000 acres in the 1.2 million-acre Republican River basin and farmers there would have to rely on rain in growing their crops.
Nebraska also would have to compensate Kansas for the economic gains it has reaped from using too much water. The figure isn’t specified in Kansas’ petition to the Supreme Court, but the state has previously calculated it at $72 million.
The Republican River starts in eastern Colorado, flows into Kansas and then up into to Nebraska before returning to Kansas. The river basin covers almost 25,000 square miles.
Use of the river’s water is governed by a 1943 compact between Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska. Colorado was given 11 percent of the water, while Kansas was allotted 40 percent and Nebraska 49 percent.
In the 1990s, farmers and officials in Kansas accused Nebraska of taking more than its allocated share. Kansas filed a lawsuit against Nebraska with the U.S. Supreme Court in 1998.
A settlement was reached in 2003. Officials in both states hoped it would end their legal dispute but acknowledged that monitoring and enforcement issues remained.
Kansas officials contend that in 2005 and 2006, Nebraska used 25.7 billion gallons more in water from the Republican River than it was due—enough to supply a city of 100,000 people for almost 10 years. Nebraska officials acknowledged some overuse but questioned Kansas’ accounting.
Nebraska was in compliance from 2007 through 2009, but only because those were wet years in the basin, said David Barfield, chief engineer for the Kansas Division of Water Resources.
“When it turns dry again, they will be out of compliance,” Barfield said. “The dry period is when that water is critical to the state of Kansas.”
The arbitrator said last year that Nebraska’s area natural resource districts should cut back on water allocations to farmers. Nebraska rejected the suggestion.
Kansas officials also had difficulty in persuading the arbitrator to push Nebraska to pay monetary damages, with the arbitrator ultimately deciding that Nebraska should pay only $10,000 to Kansas.
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