Domina Law Group is representing four Nebraska irrigators in a class action lawsuit against the State of Nebraska and the Department of natural Resources. The plaintiffs allege that in 2013, they suffered damages to their crops because the state denied them water that otherwise would have reached them through FCID canals and ditches.
The suit aims to resolve a conflict over the irrigators' rights to water from the Frenchman Cambridge Irrigation District (FCID) and the state's right to siphon off water to Kansas in compliance with the Republican River Compact. The plaintiffs allege that their right to the water trumps Nebraska's obligation to the Republican River Compact.
The plaintiffs claim that each irrigator was entitled to 18 acre inches of water from the FCID. While the suit does not claim the state lacked authority to divert the water, it does claim that the state of Nebraska should compensate the irrigators for crop losses.