Pillen: 'I'll abandon Perkins Canal if legal costs get too high'

Gov. Jim Pillen said Friday that if legal fees get too high, he would abandon the Perkins County Canal project.

The proposed Perkins County Canal would transport water from the South Platte River in Colorado into Nebraska. It’s an old idea, revived by former Gov. Pete Ricketts, Pillen’s predecessor. So far, the Legislature has appropriated $650 million toward the project, which is still in the planning stage.

Friday at a town hall meeting in York, an audience member asked Pillen about the canal.

“If it gets tied up and lawyers start taking it all, I would go to the Unicameral and abandon it,” Pillen said.

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• Nebraskans and Coloradoans discuss Perkins County canal here.
• You can find more on the history of the Perkins County Canal proposal here.
• For a story about the interaction between the proposal and growth on Colorado’s fast-growing Front Range communities, click here.
• For perspectives on the canal’s possible effects on Colorado agriculture, click here.
• And for discussion of where the proposal might go from here, click here.

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The governor said he still supports the project, but not if legal fees get to a certain point.

“I’m a Perkins Canal advocate, but not if hundreds of millions are going to attorneys. So we’re seeing where that’s at,” he said.

Suzanne Gage, spokesperson for Attorney General Mike Hilgers, said she’s not aware of any current or pending lawsuit from Colorado. And Don Blankenau, a private water attorney who has worked with the state on the project, said Nebraska and Colorado officials have been meeting, and he would be surprised if there were any litigation.