Christensen water bill revamped

Sen. Mark Christensen's bill to address the state's non-compliance with the Nebraska-Kansas Colorado water compact was heard in committee Wednesday, but in vastly different form.

LB 701 has been amended to eliminate the Basin Administration committee, water transfers from the Platte to the Republic River and property taxes, all key issues that drew the most controversy, Christen-sen said.

He introduced the new bill but then left the committee hearing immediately after doing so, to be with his step daughter, Emily Fish, 17, who is in a Lincoln hospital following a vehicle accident near Imperial on Tuesday.

His daughter was airlifted to Lincoln and will have surgery for a fractured vertebrae, Christensen said today at the McCook Chamber of Commerce's Legislative conference call.

The amendment to LB 701 also sets groundwater allocations for each county, with more water allowed farther west -- Dundy, Chase and Lincoln counties get 11 inches -- and less water east, with Nuckolls county, in south central Nebraska, at 6 inches.

Under the plan, Red Willow and Frontier would be allowed 10 inches, Hayes and Hitchcock, 10.5 inches.

"There is no perfect solution," Christensen said, defending the allocation plan. According to a a scientific review included in the amendment, conservation practices caused 65 percent of water shortages, followed by ground water pumping at 15 percent, vegetation, 15 percent, and surface water diversions, five percent.

Garey asked where this review had come from; Christensen said it was based on a study from the attorney general's office.

Conservation practices, no till farming and reduced tillage have had a huge impact on the water shortage, Christensen said. "This is not a total irrigation problem," he said.

These allocations were opposed "vehemently" by Sen. Tom Carlson, according to Garey who attended the committee hearing.

Sen. Carlson, of Holdrege, introduced his own bill, LB 458 that would address vegetation removal along rivers. This bill had a lot of positive comments, Christensen said, with virtually no opposition.

Larry Eisenmenger asked if the state was going to recognize that non-compliance with the Nebraska-Kansas Colorado Water Compact was not just a local issue.

"The state is going to have to pay for it one way or another," he said," whether economically or financially."

Christensen agreed, adding that his amendment included a number of plans to address that, including one that calculates each year how short in compliance the state stands.

He also addressed the filibuster Sen. Ernie Chambers staged this week , in opposition to LB 83 that would allows prison inmates to finish the last 60-90 days of their sentence at McCook's Work Ethic Camp.

Chambers believes that the WEC should have never been built, Christensen said, yet agreed that some sort of exit strategy should be in place at all penitentiary facilities. Christensen will draft a bill for next year that would propose some kind of rehabilitative strategy for state prisons, he said, which seemed to appease Chambers.

Christensen testified in favor of LB 83 and read letters from parents and individuals who told of the benefits of the WEC. He said he is confident that the bill will get through.