Nebraska’s Perkins County Canal 60% designed, on track for 2032 completion

[transcript] And tonight we're getting a clearer picture of Nebraska's plans for the Controversial Perkins County canal. State leaders were in Ogallala today laying out how the project ties into a century old agreement. And what it could mean for farms and communities across the region, Tristan Winder has the details from Keith County. State leaders spent their Monday morning here at the Nago building in Ogallala detailing the next steps for the Perkins County canal project. The concept for the canal itself dates back more than a century. And is written into a 1923 compact between Nebraska and Colorado over the South Platt River, giving Nebraska additional flow if the state constructs the Perkins County canal. The project resurfaced in 2022 when then governor Pete Ricketts and the Nebraska Legislature set aside funds for the project. Today officials outline what the canal could mean for Nebraska's long term water supply agriculture and nearby communities. As the state moves to secure those compact rights amid growing demands upstream in Colorado. They're building houses. They're ignoring that any involved in this. They're paying enormous amounts of money for water plants. And though there's still being grand results with industrial uses that that's out there. And there's a cultural uses in and around Denver that are still happening for irrigation. Design work on the Perkins County canal has advanced to roughly 60%. In terms of construction, we're out here. We've been working very closely with Western irrigation district. As we illustrated today, there's a portion of the project that kind of overlies with some of their infrastructure. We will need to get a little bit into the litigation that's been filed to kind of resolve how we go about acquiring land in Colorado and other design elements before we get too far. But our plan right now would put those in the schedule kind of later in this decade was ultimately bringing the project online at the end of 2032 is our goal. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hildger has provided an update on the litigation calling the South Plot River Compact case the most important is office will handle for generations. From project construction to litigation, those in attendance had a wide range of concerns. Initially, there was a lot of concern about irrigated land along the Plot River becoming non-aridated land or dry land, which would affect our county tax base significantly. Then of course, there was the concern of the land owners and farmers there about possibly losing land to eminent domain or such and losing acres of production. The Perkins County Canal project would divert water from the South Plot River near Ovid, Colorado and return it to the South Plot River in Keith County, specifically in this region near Roscoe. Today's update on the project comes as the US Army Corps of Engineers prepares for a public comment period next week in Denver and Julesburg, Colorado and Carnie, Nebraska. Reporting in Keith County, I'm Tristan Winder, KNLP News 2.