Perkins County Canal a pain point for Nebraskans whose property would be under water

The Army Corps of Engineers is evaluating Nebraska’s proposal to build a canal to bring water into the state from Colorado, with potentially personal impacts for supporters and opponents, alike.

During a crowded weekday evening in the Sedgwick County Community Center in Julesburg, Colorado, a man picks up a portable microphone and taps it a few times.

“Hello everyone. Hey, thank you for coming tonight. My name is Aaron Eilers. I'm with the Corps of Engineers,” he said to the crowd, gathered to discuss the so-called Perkins County Canal project.

That’s the name for Nebraska’s plan for a canal to carry water from the South Platte River in Colorado into western Nebraska, where it would be stored in two reservoirs and released when needed.

It’s called the Perkins County Canal because Perkins County, Nebraska is where the water was originally intended to go when farmers began hand-digging the canal in the 1890s. And when Nebraska and Colorado signed an agreement in the 1920s allowing Nebraska to build the canal, they used that name. But the canal Nebraska’s currently proposing doesn’t go through Perkins County – it goes through Keith County, instead.

Nebraska officials say the canal is needed because the South Platte River Compact with Colorado promises Nebraska a certain amount of water, but only if it builds the canal.

Colorado officials say the canal would hurt farmers in that state if Nebraska takes more irrigation water, and that Nebraska is overreacting to growing water use in Colorado’s front range communities.

At the meeting, Eilers tried to make it clear the Corps is not taking sides.

“It is important to understand that the Corps of Engineers is not a proponent or an opponent of this project. The regulatory branch does not act in that role,” he said

Instead, he said the Corps' job is to evaluate if the proposal meets the Clean Water Act and other requirements.

“As part of our permitting process, we have to look at more than just the impacts of the aquatic resource," he said. "We have to take into effect public interest factors... what impacts might be to historic properties, what impacts might be to endangered species, what the impacts might be as they relate to water quality in the river, and we have to do that in both states,” he said.

Eilers asked the audience for information to help guide the Corps’ work.

“The public comment scoping process is the opportunity for the public to provide us with comments: positive, negative, really, anything goes about the project,” he said, urging people to be as specific as possible.

“A comment that doesn't help is, ‘I don't like this project.’ That doesn't really do much for us. A comment that would help would be, ‘I don't like this project because it's going to damage a culvert and intersect with a pivot.’ That's usable information for me,” he said.

One person in the audience with a lot of specific information was Sarah Most. Most said one of the proposed reservoirs would put her in-laws’ house and much of the land she and her husband farm, near Roscoe, Nebraska, underwater.

After the meeting, Most described what effect the project would have.

“Everything that we know, life as we know it, would be nonexistent. I mean, this dam would be over our property. It would be over their (the in-laws’) property. It would be over a majority of the ground that that we farm,” she said.

On a drive down a minimum maintenance road near her home the next morning, Most pointed out where the reservoir would stretch for miles over what is now a bowl filled with farmland and wildlife habitat.

“So this is the route we take every day to go to farm – this is our ground,” she said, “And the shop’s down here. So this would all be under water – all this.”

Aside from the effect on her property, Most questions whether a court could ultimately decide against the project after it’s built.

“It very well could be that we pour this money into it, we displace all these families, we cut through all these irrigated acres, we just disrupt this community. And then it could very well be ‘Sorry you don't get the water anyway.’ Then what?” she asked.

At the meeting in Julesburg, Eilers stressed that the Corps' evaluation is separate from any legal challenges, such as Nebraska’s request for the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

“I know there’s a lawsuit. We’re aware of all that. But we aren’t involved in that. We are involved in just a Clean Water Act regulatory permitting process,” she said.

Eilers said that process will probably take a year before the Corps issues a draft environmental impact statement, setting off another round of public comment. For now, he said, public comments are open until April 6.

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The Army Corps of Engineers says scoping comments may be submitted in the following ways:

• Electronically via the Regulatory Request System using the search term NWO-2023-00518
• Email: PCC.EIS@usace.army.mil
• Postal mail: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District Regulatory Division, Attention: PCC, 1616 Capitol Avenue, Omaha, NE 68102
• Verbally or in writing at in-person public meetings, or verbally at the virtual public meeting.

All written comments should include the project name, Perkins County Canal, and permit application number NWO-2023-00518 in the subject line.