Water Lawsuit Likely to Cost Colorado $40 Million: Pueblo Chieftain

Home Browse Search

The P-ieblo Chieftain Online I Monday wysiwyg : / /11 /http: / /www.chieftain.com /thursday /news /display.php3 ?article =1 L;onstrcution, oarring citizens or one state trom suing Summerfest another sovereign state. Winterfest Guidebook He noted that although damages may be based on lost Spring Runoff irrigation water and crop yield, the judgment would be Pueblo Zoo awarded to the state of Kansas, not individual farmers who live there. FOCUS ON YOUTH: Headbone Zone Lawyers for both states have until July 28 to comment Images before Littleworth finalizes his report and submits it to the Classroom Chieftain U.S. Supreme Court in the fall. Lawyers then may submit School District 60 exceptions to the court. School District 70 Pueblo Library District The Supreme Court could issue a final decision next year, or it could prolong the 15- year -old case further by returning remaining issues in dispute to the special master for additional findings. Colorado actually lost the historic compact case in 1995, when the Supreme Court adopted Littleworth's findings that the state had depleted Arkansas River flows to the detriment of farmers in southwestern Kansas. Forewarned, Colorado legislators said the payout still will sting. "it will have a major impact on the capital construction budget, which is the only place to find that kind of money without cutting programs," Aurora Sen. Elsie Lacy, who chairs the Joint Budget Committee, said. A native of Las Animas, Lacy said she was extremely disappointed the Kansas lawsuit forced restrictions on Colorado well irrigation that means so much to Lower Arkansas Valley farmers. "All of a sudden Kansas can claim the water. So we have a lawsuit, and away goes the water," Lacy said, warning that the state better start storing Colorado River water before California goes to court to grab it. Rep. Joyce Lawrence, R- Pueblo, serves on the Capital Development Committee and is worried that a large court judgment would cut deeply into the state's construction plans. Besides state buildings, she said, the Legislature needs to keep a surplus of at least $80 million annually to satisfy the recent settlement of a public school construction lawsuit in state court. "Our latest figures have $105 million to take care of continuation projects," Lawrence said. "If the compact case is more than $25 million, we'd have trouble paying into the school lawsuit settlement." Any payment to Kansas, however, is at least a year away. It has taken the last five years since the Supreme Court's 1995 initial ruling for the two states to argue damages. Kansas originally sought $322 million in cash. Colorado countered by proposing to pay in water rather than money. 2 of 3 7/10/00 2:05 PM