Nebraska orders Republican River water release

LINCOLN — A Nebraska irrigation district official worries that his area’s next corn crop has been jeopardized by a state order to tap reservoirs so Nebraska can send enough water downriver to Kansas.

Nebraska is trying to comply with the 1943 Republican River Compact, which dictates that Nebraska gets 49 percent of the Republican River’s water, Kansas gets 40 percent and Colorado gets 11 percent.

Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District general manager Brad Edgerton wasn’t happy with the state ordering extra releases from four federal reservoirs that collect tributary and runoff from the river...