Nebraska
Colorado, Nebraska jostle over water rights amid drought
OVID, Colo. — Shortly after dawn on the excessive plains of northeastern Colorado, Don Schneider tinkers with seed-dispensing gear on a mammoth corn planter. The day’s job: Fastidiously sowing tons of of acres of seed between lengthy rows of final yr’s desiccated stalks to make sure the irrigation water he is collected over the winter will final till harvest time.
A two-hour’s drive eastward, Steve Hanson, a fifth-generation Nebraska cattle breeder who additionally produces corn and different crops, is getting ready to seed, having saved winter water to assist guarantee his merchandise make it to market. Like Schneider and numerous others on this semi-arid area, he needs his kids and grandchildren to have the ability to work the wealthy soil homesteaded by their ancestors within the 1800s.
Schneider and Hanson discover themselves on reverse sides of a looming, politically-fraught dispute over water resembling the type that till now has been reserved for the parched U.S. states alongside the Colorado River Basin.
As local weather change-fueled megadrought edges eastward, Nebraska’s Republican-controlled Legislature this yr voted to maneuver ahead with a plan that surprised Colorado state leaders. The Cornhusker State needs to divert water in Colorado by invoking an obscure, 99-year-old compact between the states that permits Nebraska to grab Colorado land alongside the South Platte River to construct a canal.
Nebraska’s plan underscores an growing urge for food all through the West to preemptively safe water as winter snows and year-round rainfall diminish, forcing states to reallocate more and more scarce flows in basins such because the South Platte and its better-known cousin, the Colorado River.
Nebraska’s Republican governor, Pete Ricketts, gave valuable few particulars in calling for $500 million in money reserves and one-time federal pandemic funds to be spent on the undertaking, apart from to say it is going to profit agriculture, energy era and municipal consuming water. Ricketts decried proposals in Colorado to both siphon or retailer extra South Platte water, particularly within the rapidly-growing Denver metro space, saying they threaten Nebraska’s water rights tons of of miles downstream.
The announcement despatched Colorado officers scrambling to mud off the 1923 compact, which each Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court docket signed off on and nonetheless stands because the regulation of the land. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis vowed to “aggressively assert” Colorado’s water rights, and state lawmakers lambasted the proposal. GOP Rep. Richard Holtorf, an space cattleman, declared: “You give Nebraska what they’re due however you do not give them a lot else.”
For now, Colorado will not be going to legally problem Nebraska’s proper to a canal underneath the compact, stated Kevin Rein, Colorado’s state engineer and director of the Colorado Division of Water Assets. “The opposite facet of that coin is that we’ll make each effort that their operation is in compliance with the compact” and protects Colorado’s rights, Rein stated.
The South Platte meanders 380 miles from the Rocky Mountains by the Colorado city of Julesburg on the Nebraska line. Relying on the season, it could seemingly disappear in elements, solely to re-emerge downstream. It might turn into a torrent with heavy snowmelt or flooding. Cottonwood bushes line its banks and sandbars create the phantasm that it consists of a number of creeks in lots of locations.
The compact permits Nebraska to construct a canal to say 500 cubic ft (greater than 3,700 gallons) per second between mid-October and April, the non-irrigation season.
Nebraska’s Legislature allotted $53.5 million for an engineering research for the undertaking, which as initially envisioned underneath the compact would start someplace close to Schneider’s farm in Ovid and run at the least 24 miles into Nebraska’s Perkins County, the place Hanson’s operations are headquartered.
Hanson’s all for it, saying the extra water there may be to irrigate his and his neighbors’ expansive farms, the higher their progeny can keep it up that legacy.
“I need my grandsons to have the ability to have the reassurance that they’ll farm irrigated ought to they select,” he stated.
“When the phrase got here out that the ditch could be coming, let me inform you, our space was elated,” stated Collin Malmkar, 79, who together with his spouse Jeanne, 75, and their kids develop corn, popcorn and peas on 15,000 acres within the Perkins County seat of Grant. Jeanne’s great-grandfather labored on a failed 1898 effort to dig a canal from Ovid.
Schneider, whose son Bradon additionally works the fields, is nervous the undertaking may kill his life’s work in a area that’s lengthy struggled to maintain its youthful generations from leaving.
“If we needed to convert this to a dryland farm, I’m undecided the place we’d begin” to downsize, stated Schneider, 63. “I’d like to retire in a few years. However my 30-year-old son, what’s he going to do?”
Schneider and his neighbors take surplus South Platte water in winter to reinforce the wells they use to irrigate their crops in summer time. That water, in flip, finally makes its approach again into the South Platte. If Nebraska claims that winter water underneath the compact, Schneider says the choice — non-irrigated dryland farming — means lowered crop yields, fewer farms and fewer jobs.
Each Hanson and Schneider — and lots of others on this area the place occasional “Donald Trump 2024” billboards dot two-lane highways — do not like to make use of the phrases “local weather change.” The shortage of moisture to work with speaks for itself.
“One thing’s altering, that’s for positive,” Schneider stated. “I’m undecided what’s actually driving it. We often get buried in snow, and we haven’t seen these in years.”
“Whereas I’m not a 100% believer in it, among the ideas are that we’re getting brief on water due to local weather change,” Hanson avers. Scientists have lengthy warned that human-made local weather change has made the West hotter and drier up to now 30 years.
Remnants of the 1898 effort to dig a canal might be seen in Julesburg, the place grass-lined ditches run into the modern-day Julesburg cemetery, Interstate 76 and even the Colorado Welcome Heart on the state line.
Jay Goddard, a banker in Julesburg, walks the deserted ditch on farmland he owns subsequent to the cemetery and marvels on the effort put into it. His financial institution supplies working loans to farmers on either side of the border to maintain them working till harvest time.
“If we lose any of our irrigation for our communities up and down the river, whether or not it’s within the Nebraska facet or the Colorado facet, we lose farmers,” Goddard stated. “We lose children in faculties, our electrical corporations that serve us, the insurance coverage businesses to the grain elevators, grocery shops to pharmacies. if we lose irrigation, the communities proceed to dry up. Actually.”
Schneider echoes the identical worries in his function as a Sedgewick County commissioner. Tax income plummeted after Ovid’s previous sugar beet manufacturing facility closed; the county sheriff lately took a higher-paying job nearer to the Entrance Vary in Colorado.
“We will’t purchase a deputy,” Schneider says.
Farmers on either side emphasize they’d wish to see a workaround that serves all people. All agree {that a} canal undertaking shall be years within the making — and that if disputes come up, attorneys specializing within the intricacies of water regulation or eminent area may have a area day.
“I don’t suppose I’ll see it in my lifetime,” says Schneider. However he provides: “(Gov. Pete) Ricketts has confounded everybody.”
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Related Press author Grant Schulte in Lincoln, Nebraska contributed to this report.
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Related Press local weather and environmental protection receives assist from a number of personal foundations. See extra about AP’s local weather initiative right here. The AP is solely answerable for all content material. ———
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NORTH BEND, Neb. (KMTV) — Bagged pumps at gas stations and social media posts left us wondering about a fuel shortage in Nebraska. We set out to learn more.
- We drove from Omaha to North Bend, checking gas stations on the way.
- We found several pumps with bags on them and other stations operating normally.
- Doug Bartek, a farmer in Wahoo, says the fuel shortage impacts his operation.
WATCH MOLLY’S STORY BELOW
Nebraska Fuel Shortage: A look at gas stations across our neighborhoods
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Everyone is on the move.
We drove from Omaha to North Bend, checking gas stations on the way. Several pumps had bags on them, but many other stations were operating normally.
Reporter Molly Hudson talked to Doug Bartek, a third-generation farmer in Wahoo, last month. Thursday, she checked in to see how the fuel shortage impacts him.
“The thing that’s kind of complicated it and made it worse is the way the spring planting is going. There has been really not much for rain, so farmers have just kind of kept going and, you know, kept using fuel all the time and then plus, it has been so dry; there has been some irrigation going on, so that just creates more demand for it and just kind of compounds the problem,” Bartek said.
Earlier this week, a regional federal waiver on service hours was put in place through June 30 for drivers hauling fuels in Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas.
The declarationsays the fuel shortages are, quote, “resulting from unexpected increased demand for the spring planting season coupled with refinery conversion to summer blends, pipeline maintenance in key supply corridors, and outages at terminals.”
A Casey’s employee told Molly they typically put bags over the pumps when they aren’t working properly. Molly called a communications person for Casey’s to learn more, but did not hear back Thursday evening.
Nebraska softball is back in the NCAA Tournament for the 27th time in program history.
The Huskers open against UConn in Baton Rouge at 2 p.m. CDT on Friday. The other side of the regional is Southeastern Louisiana and host LSU.
Voice of Nebraska Softball Nate Rohr joined Kaleb Henry to preview the regional. You can read Nate’s responses below, and continue scrolling to watch the entire conversation.
On the postseason awards
I’m very happy that Jordy Bahl got both pitcher and player of the year because I think what she is doing is unique. She is pitching at such a high level and she’s hitting at such a high level at the exact same time. And that’s to say nothing of the defense with which she’s playing the outfield, which for the most part has been really good, or first base where she’s been very good.
But I was a little worried, going into last week, that the fact that Jordy’s numbers were really, really good, but not the absolute best hitting wise, would cost her hitter/player of the year, which very often becomes more or less a hitter of the year award. And because her numbers weren’t perfect from a pitching standpoint, it would cost her pitcher of the year. Lyndsey Grein of Oregon was probably her top competition on pitcher of the year, and she had a bumpy last series against Michigan State. So that kind of opened the door for her.
I do think the coaches recognized that what Jordy Ball is doing is unprecedented, being so dominant on both sides, being so dominant as an outfielder and a hitter and a base runner and a pitcher. The fact that she is just dominating at all levels was unprecedented and deserved unprecedented levels of honor. I’m happy that the coaches recognized that it needed to be honored that way.
I was happy to see Ava Kuszak as the first team all-conference player. She’s hit as well as anybody in the country other than Jordy Bahl. She’s had a great year. I was happy Hannah Camenzind got some love.
Samantha Bland’s a nice story at third base in that, here’s somebody that played infield growing up and she played infield through high school, but Nebraska put her in the outfield last year to get her time, just get her playing. And so she had to convert back to the infield. And I think that held her back for a while. I think she was working through that, adjusting to the increased workload defensively. And it took her some time, but she put in the work, worked really hard, and has been able to settle in at third base. And the fact that she’s all defensive team tells you that she’s settled in at third base. And then the bats come along with it.
On the Big Ten Conference Tournament
I think (UCLA pitcher Kaitlyn) Terry threw pretty well. We’ll start there. I thought she was on. She was changing speed. She had her hitters crossed up. She’s also the best pitcher in Nebraska had faced in six weeks and maybe longer. There are good pitchers out there at Northwestern and Washington, but nobody to Terry’s quality. So it’s just tough to deal with a pitcher that good when you’ve been facing routinely pitchers that are a step behind that. And so Nebraska had difficulty adjusting. She threw well.
UCLA was able to put some pressure on Nebraska by scoring runs. So it’s nothing that really concerns me long term. You hope they’re able to adjust, especially going into this regional and facing LSU, not to get ahead of ourselves. UConn’s first on the menu but you know LSU has pitchers of vaguely that quality and you’re hopeful that seeing that sort of pitcher last Friday will help them if they were to face LSU as we all hope they do on Saturday.
On the regional draw
I do think it’s one of the more favorable draws we’ve seen. I’m thinking back on the Stillwater regionals the last couple of years, and though Wichita State was from the American Athletic Conference, there are tiers to the conferences other than the Power Four. The American is toward the top of that list. And frankly, the Big East is toward the bottom of that list.
So the three seed that Nebraska drew was pretty favorable. Southeastern Louisiana worries me a little more because they do one thing well. I don’t know if you looked at them top to bottom, front to back, how they stack up with the rest of the regional field, but if you start walking them, it starts to get ugly. They may be a little tougher four than you’re used to, but I think the fact that you’re giving some with the three with UConn would suggest that this is a little easier regional to navigate than Nebraska’s seen.
The last time the Huskers played down here in Baton Rouge was 2015. That was the made for TV regional where LSU was the top seed. Arizona state was the two, Nebraska was the three, and then Texas Southern was the four. When you’re talking about three major conference schools in the same regional, that’s pretty arduous. That’s tough because you’re sitting there, and as you try to navigate the regional, you’re thinking on Saturday, “how are we going to beat a really, really good team with our season on the line while also being mindful of the fact that we’ve got to play two games on Sunday if you lose that game on Saturday to LSU?”
So that’s the long-winded way of saying this is a little better draw, to be quite frank, than Nebraska’s gotten recently.
On UConn
Really good offense, surprisingly good RPI. Most Big East teams are in the hundreds in RPI, and they ended up in the upper 60s, which still isn’t great, but does speak to them challenging themselves from a schedule standpoint and giving teams some trouble.
I know Rhonda Ravel talked with Karen Weekly, Tennessee’s coach, and Tennessee played UConn and had trouble but ended up beating them. Weekly kind of underscored to Rhonda, “hey, this UConn bunch is for real.”
It’s led by their catcher Grace Jenkins. She’s having just a video game numbers type of year: 21 home runs. 68 RBI, .425 average, slugging .916. She’s the engine that makes that offense go and is the real threat in that lineup. Nebraska is going to have to control her.
The rest of the lineup is pretty good. UConn averages seven plus runs a game. It’ll be a game where you hope it doesn’t turn into a scoring derby, a hit fest. If you’re able to keep UConn’s offense down, I think Nebraska’s got a good chance. That’s going to require pitching it pretty well because I think this UConn lineup is a little better than you might have thought just kind of seeing the name pop up on the bracket on Sunday.
On Southeastern Louisiana
Another good offensive team. A team that pitched it pretty well this year also. The one thing that scares me about them is how they run the bases. They are one of the best base-stealing teams in all of college softball. If you walk their hitters, it, in effect, turns into a double where all they need to do is get one hit to score the run. So from that standpoint, I worry about the matchup with Southeastern Louisiana.
The perception would be that you throw Jordy Bahl until either you won the regional or her right arm detaches from her body, but I would think at some point we see Kylee Magee, we see Hannah Camenzind. But against the Southeastern Louisiana you have to throw a strike, so you’d be less prone to put Magee in there because of that patience at the plate that could really come back and hurt you.
To be honest, you hope you don’t see Southeastern Louisiana in the elimination bracket. If they happen to pull the upset against LSU, that’s one thing. But if you’re sitting there looking at having to play four games in just over a day, and you’re trying to parse out how do we throw Jordy Bahl, you don’t want to see the Southeastern Louisiana team that steals bases like crazy.
On LSU
Well, another good offense, another very patient lineup, which scares you a little bit. The pitching is as good as it usually is. They just always seem to crank out good pitchers. This is also a team that finished ninth in the SEC, so it’s not like you’re looking at them like a giant Colossus. They’re good. Let’s not get that twisted.
You think about it this time of year and the conditions that we’re going to see. It’s going to be 90s and humid down here. Though Nebraska has chartered more this year than any year that I’ve covered the team, and I’ve covered them since ’04, travel adds up on you a little bit. The fact that LSU is at home, the fact that they may have more gas in their tank right now… that’ll smooth their path a little bit and extend those numbers.
Two decent pitchers, a patient lineup, but nobody that really just knocks your socks off and makes you afraid the way Jenkins does. But let’s not get it twisted. A really big challenge, especially in their home building where they’ve won a ton of games.
You can watch the full conversation below.
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Nebraska lawmakers gave overwhelming approval Wednesday to a bill intended to make children safer online.
Senators voted 46-3 to pass Legislative Bill 383 after the final round of debate.
It now heads to the desk of Gov. Jim Pillen, who supports it.
SEE ALSO: Bill banning the use of cellphones in Nebraska classrooms moves on to next stage
The bill requires parental consent for anyone under 18 to create a social media account.
Anyone who signs up for an account would be required to verify their age.
Social media companies could be fined up to $2,500 per violation.
The legislation also bans the use of artificial intelligence to create sexually explicit content involving children.
SEE ALSO: Nebraska state senators introduce three bills on children and social media
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