Texas filed suit against New Mexico over Rio Grande Compact disputes, with Colorado brought into the fray as a result, Colorado Division of Water Resources Division 3 Engineer Craig Cotten told San Luis Valley water leaders during Tuesday’s Rio Grande Roundtable meeting. The suit, filed in U.S.

Nebraska is imposing limits on the use of the Republican River to make sure enough water flows downstream to Kansas this year in the midst of a drought. The state Department of Natural Resources issued an order this week requiring additional conservation measures in the river basin to help Nebraska comply with a long-standing agreement with Kansas and Colorado.

It seemed anyone who was or is someone in the production, distribution or consumption of water in Southwest Colorado for the last 60 years gathered Tuesday at a spot on Long Hollow. The occasion was the groundbreaking for the Long Hollow Reservoir dam, the key component in an effort to store water for Colorado ranchers and help satisfy the state’s La Plata River obligation to New Mexico.

Brice Lee is smiling. The approval of an escrow agreement allows the La Plata Water Conservancy District to break ground on the Longhollow Reservoir. “It’s been 15 or 20 years,” Lee said Friday.

Colorado is running ahead on its deliveries of water to Kansas under the Arkansas River Compact. Accounting for flows through 2010 shows that Colorado has credits of about 44,000 acre-feet in a 10-year running average of flows, said Kevin Salter, of the Kansas engineering staff. The accounting is required as part of the Kansas v. Colorado U.S.

A Nebraska lawmaker has asked the state to forgive a $9 million loan that helped pay farmers in the Republican River basin for sending some of their irrigation water to Kansas in 2007. State Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial introduced the bill on Wednesday. The water was sent to Kansas to help Nebraska comply with a compact that guides use of the river.

Nebraska water officials are moving ahead with a detailed study of a pipeline that would dump groundwater into the Republican River for use by Kansas.

A complex water trade has been set in motion to ensure Kansas that it gets deliveries of water owed by Colorado under the Arkansas River Compact. At a May 1 meeting, the Arkansas River Compact Administration determined Colorado owes Kansas more than 3,000 acre-feet to satisfy obligations dating back to 1996 and gain acceptance by Kansas of the accounting for the years since then.