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A Kansas-Nebraska compact signed in 1943 allocated the annual water supply in the Republican River Basin, with Nebraska getting 49 percent, Kansas getting 40 percent and Colorado II percent. The river starts in eastern Colorado, flows into Kansas and up to Nebraska and returns to Kansas in Republic County. In 1998, Kansas went to the V,S, Supreme Court, claiming Nebraska had violated the compact by allowing the unimpeded development ofthousands of wells drawing from the river and its tributaries. That, Kansas claimed, resulted in Nebraska getting more acre-feet of water than it was entitled, depriving Kansas of its rightful share, . The court appointed a special master to oversee the case, and the settlement negotiated by the three states was finished in June 2003, It ensures compliance with the 1943 compact and gave Nebraska time to make changes in its water management program. Nebraska used more water than the settlement allowed in 2003 and 2004 and likely did so again this growing season, officials said, But now compliance is measured over a five-year average of water usage, with this period starting in 2003. To replenish the river basin, Nebraska may have to transfer 100,000 acre-feet of water into the river basin by 2007 or pay $15 million in fees and damages in 2008, a group of Nebraska irrigators and related businesses said, Arkansas Valley Conduit Group Requests Push for Authorization: Area leaders working toward making the Arkansas Valley Conduit a reality urged legislative aids to get Congress to authorize the project while the details of the pipeline continue to be worked out here at home. The conduit committee, comprised of board members of the Southeast Colorado Water Conservancy District, the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, municipalities and water districts from St. Charles Mesa to Lamar met Dec. 20 in La Junta. Representatives of Senator Wayne Allard's and Senator Ken Salazar's offices, along with Representative John Salazar's office, were on hand to provide a legislative update. . The Arkansas Valley Conduit was originally part ofthe Fryingpan-Arkansas transmountain water project authorized in the 1960s. Back then a pipeline to deliver water from an outlet at Pueblo Dam to communities downstream to Lamar was deemed unnecessary when compared to the cost of that portion of the project. Today, water quality and quantity issues have made the conduit a project that can't afford to be forgotten, area officials say, despite the costs estimated in excess of $200 million dollars, Colorado's delegates to Washington are pursuing two avenues of conduit authorization: one where the pipeline is a V,S. Army Corps of Engineers project and a separate concept where the conduit is done by the Bureau of Reclamation, which currently operates the rest of the Fry-Ark project for the communities in the Southeastern District. Neither stand-alone bill is scheduled for hearing, Local officials are working with Black & Veatch on an investigation study that gathers the information necessary to outline the details of the pipeline: community participation, projected need for water up through 2050, water rights currently available for the project and how much it would take to satisfy communities along the valley, The committee asks for authorization of the project and will work toward a 75-percent-or-more government cost share agreement after the authorization, The investigation study is expected to lead to preliminary designs, As public meetings are held to gather input, the map of the proposed pipeline and how the spurs to small communities north and south of the main pipe will continue to evolve. A new concept the committee will start to address is the idea of existing facilities being used as in-kind on the local community portion of . the cost. The reverse osmosis plants in La Junta and Las Animas, which could likely treat water for the pipeline in some way, are examples of the in-kind idea, Other communities are looking forward to 26