Irrigators file new lawsuit

BEAVER CITY, Neb. -- Four Southwest Nebraska irrigators have filed a second class action lawsuit seeking monetary compensation for damages suffered in 2014 when Nebraska ordered water to bypass Frenchman Cambridge Irrigation District's storage reservoirs and diversion dams.

In September 2015, Furnas County District Judge James Doyle IV ruled in favor of the farmers by denying a motion by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources to dismiss the case. The irrigators' first complaint alleged that the irrigators each have a right to use the water taken from them, and that those rights are superior to the rights of the State to take water for the purpose of passing it to Kansas to comply with Nebraska's obligations to the Republican River Compact.

The irrigators contended their crops were damaged because they were denied, by state action, water that otherwise would have reached them through FCID canals and ditches in 2013 and 2014. Damaged crops identified in the complaint included corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa.

According to Brad Edgerton, manager of the Frenchman Cambridge Irrigation District (FCID), for two consecutive years (2013 and 2014), Nebraska ordered water to bypass FCID's storage reservoirs and diversion dams. Edgerton said that in both years, the Nebraska DNR left water on the table that could have been consumed by Frenchman Cambridge Irrigation District farmers.

In this second lawsuit, filed in Furnas County District Court on Oct. 30, the irrigators ask that the court determine a claims procedure by which to compensate each class member for lost income, that the court review claims submitted and determine the amount due to each class member.

The plaintiffs and class representatives are irrigators Greg Hill of Furnas County, Brent Coffey of Harlan County, James Uerling of Red Willow County and Warren Schaffert of Hitchcock County.

The lawsuit states, "Each Plaintiff is a FCID water user. Each Plaintiff is a farmer engaged in farming operations who requires, and has traditionally received and used, irrigation water from FCID's ditches and canals and the reclamation dams of the United States, managed by the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation. This water is necessary to produce corn, soybeans, and other crops. Without this water, the essential character of Plaintiffs' surface water irrigated land areas are changed to dryland, crop production potential is dramatically diminished, crops are lost, real estate values are adversely affected, and commerce in Nebraska is diminished."