What to know about the Perkins County Canal

The Perkins County Canal project is a plan to build a canal to carry water from the South Platte River near Ovid, Colorado to western Nebraska, where it would be stored in reservoirs, and eventually returned to the river near Paxton, Nebraska.

Nebraska says it needs to build the canal to prevent Colorado from using all the water in the river before it reaches Nebraska.

Colorado says Nebraska is overreacting to what is simply a wish list of possible water projects in Colorado, and that building the canal would deprive farmers in northeast Colorado of needed irrigation water.

Nebraska has so far set aside $628 million in state funds, largely received from the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic, for the project.

Then-Gov. Pete Ricketts proposed the latest version of project in 2022. But it's a revival of a project that originally started in the 1890s, until builders ran out of money. Permission for Nebraska to build the canal was given in an interstate compact between Nebraska and Colorado in 1923, and the idea was again studied in the 1980s.

The South Platte River Compact is an agreement between Colorado and Nebraska signed in 1923. It essentially requires Colorado to assure a flow of 120 cubic feet of water per second into Nebraska during the irrigation season, April 1 to Oct. 15. It also allows Nebraska to divert 500 cubic feet per second from Colorado into Nebraska during the non-irrigation season, but only if Nebraska builds the Perkins County Canal.

Nebraska officials say the state must assure that growth in Colorado will not decrease flows into Nebraska in the future. They are invoking the compact’s promise that Nebraska can be assured 500 cubic feet of water per second in the non-irrigation season if it builds the Perkins County Canal.

So far, Colorado landowners have refused Nebraska’s offer to buy land near Ovid, Colorado where the canal would begin. Nebraska has the right, under an interstate compact with Colorado, to use eminent domain to take the land. It has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify how to assert that right.

Nebraska has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that Colorado has violated the compact, both by not delivering enough water in the non-irrigation season, and by preventing Nebraska from building the Perkins County Canal. Colorado has said it is abiding by the compact.

There’s no way of telling. Nebraska previously said it could have the canal up and running by 2028. Then, after it sued Colorado, it said that could take until 2032.