DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, March 8, 2006 6:00 pm
Arguing that Nebraska’s water policy is destroying its economic future, Republican candidate for governor Dave Nabity said Thursday he’d consider dipping into aquifers to increase stream flows.
Diversion of excess water to areas of need ought to be one of the options on the table, Nabity said.
“We’re committing economic suicide” by pursuing policies that take land out of production and blame irrigators for water woes, the Omaha businessman told a State Capitol news conference.
Nebraska is “too willing to reduce water allocations to the point of destroying large portions of our agricultural economy,” he said.
The federal government is “much to blame for the disruption of stream flows” because of federal conservation programs, Nabity said, and should provide compensation in any Nebraska settlement with Kansas for violation of water supply allotments in the Republican River basin.
The settlement is flawed, Nabity said, and “I’m going to ask that the federal government become party to any fines that might be assessed.”
The 1943 Kansas-Nebraska compact allocated 49 percent of annual water supply in the Republican basin to Nebraska, 40 percent to Kansas and 11 percent to Colorado. Nebraska faces a potential penalty of $15 million for violating terms of the agreement with Kansas.
If elected governor, Nabity said, he’d refashion water policy instead of continuing to “screw up our ability to grow our economy.”
Nabity recently returned from a week in the Panhandle and southwest Nebraska where he said water issues are huge.
“Managing Nebraska’s water is going to become the biggest issue in the state,” he said. “At this time, all of Nebraska is in jeopardy because of poor water policy.”
Nabity said he hopes he’ll have the opportunity raise the water issue in his first debate with his opponents, Gov. Dave Heineman and Rep. Tom Osborne. The GOP candidates will hold their first of six debates on March 19 at the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus.
State Auditor Kate Witek, who is Osborne’s lieutenant governor running mate, passed Nabity in a Capitol corridor on the way to her office as he was about to begin his news conference on water policy.
“My solution is to bottle it and sell it,” Witek called out as she passed by.
Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.