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Editorial
Honest irrigators right to feel outrage
Monday, June 21, 2010
Wednesday's meeting of the Republican River Basin Water Sustainability Task Force should be interesting, and not just because it will be attended by Gov. Dave Heineman.
We don't know if the subject of irrigators cheating on water meters will come up, but it should, if only as a sign of a larger issue.
How far is Nebraska willing to go to comply with the Republican River Task Force? And how tightly are we willing to control our own irrigators in order to keep Kansas from having more ammunition to take into court against us?
Like politics in a third-world country, enforcement of water rules within a Natural Resources District has two audiences; those subject to the local government decisions, and outside interests looking in.
In this case, it's not only the states of Nebraska and Kansas looking on, but the downstream NRDs, for which the meter-cheating may be seen as only the tip of the iceberg.
If irrigators who have been taking more than their share of water for years, and once caught, are allowed to tap back into the aquifer as if nothing had happened, those who see their water rights reduced downstream will have a right to feel outrage.