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Editorial
State's central issue headed for a solution?
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Native Americans called our region "flat water" when, after being pushed westward by European settlers in the 18th century, they encountered the Platte River.
In 1714, French explorer Etienne de veniard, sieur de Bourgmont -- perhaps his friends called him "Spike," -- adapted the Otoe or Omaha word and called it the "Nebraskier River," a name later applied to the state.
Three centuries later, water continues to be a central issue for our state, and for the past half century or more, fair and effective ways to use that resource remain as mysterious as the land was for the first explorers.
The Legislature has a good opportunity to bring some order to what has been a piecemeal, chaotic issue over the decades.
Like most successful legislation, there are some things about LB1098 that neither side like.
Sen. Tom Carlson, a Republican candidate for governor, sponsored the bill after leading a state water sustainability task force last summer.
It is expected to generate $32 million for a new water sustainability fund by next year. It would also expand the Natural Resources Commission from 16 members to 27 to involve more stakeholders such as groundwater and surface water irrigators, cities, public power districts and wildlife conservation groups.
It would also require natural resources districts and the state to work together on river-basin management plans.
As Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha said, the bill would require the many different groups to get together to work out a solution.
Outstate interests are unhappy with a provision which would set aside 10 percent of the state's annual water funding for an Omaha sewer upgrade, mandated by the federal government.
Gov. Heineman and others have argued that Nebraska shouldn't have to pay for Omaha's problem. Eastern interests, however, may argue that they shouldn't have to pay for problems with the Republican River.
Southwest Nebraskans argue, however, that the state signed the 1943 Republican River Compact with Kansas and Colorado, making it a statewide issue.
A perfect solution? Of course not. We'd rather see even more unified control of the Republican River basin, perhaps even across state lines.
But LB1098 seems like a good step in the right direction.