Kansas on Tuesday ratcheted up its fight for water from the Republican River, which flows from eastern Colorado through Nebraska into Kansas, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the dispute.
The case that Kansas filed in the high court targets Nebraska but also names Colorado. All three are parties to the 1942 Republican River Compact that divvied up the river’s water.
Towns and farmers in Kansas “have been deprived of the water they rely upon,” Kansas Attorney General Steve Six said. He vowed to “continue this fight until Nebraska complies with our agreement.” A 2002 settlement of a 1998 lawsuit unraveled. That led to nonbinding arbitration, in which the arbitrator found that Kansas had not proved its case.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers expressed disappointment at the slide into litigation. Suthers called on Nebraska and Kansas “to sit down with us” to hash out a solution.
