Engineer tells Nebraska Colorado has right to South Platte River flow

BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

Colorado’s state water engineer has a message for the Nebraska o cials doubling down on their commitment to a $567 million canal across the border: e Nebraska report by an engineering rm makes multiple assumptions that Colorado disputes, in particular whether the water will be “physically available, or whether it’s legally available at the time when it’s physically available,” Rein said in an interview. e Nebraska study “does not adequately consider future development” by Colorado of water in the upper section of the South Platte, a stretch running back from Washington County all the way up through Greeley, Boulder County and Denver, Rein’s letter says. e compact doesn’t give Nebraska any say over how much upper section water Colorado can use from the South Platte or how much water must be available at a key river gauge at Balzac, a ghost town near Brush.

You can build it, but the water may not come.

Colorado state engineer Kevin Rein acknowledges a historic compact gives Nebraska the right to build the canal at the South Platte River west of Julesburg. But in a ve-page response to Nebraska’s rst o cial evaluation of the plan, tacking closely to the direction set by Colorado’s attorney general, Rein says the actual water Nebraska is counting on may never show up.