A total cluster....

OK, I promised my faithful readers (who seem to be absent after my long absence) that I'd be back in short order, so here I am.

There's almost too much to talk about.

But let me start with the proposed water transfer from the Platte River into a a power company ditch, into a creek and through a lake, all before the water robbed from the Platte is dumped unceremoniously into the Republican River.

The whole idea behind this, in a nutshell, is there's so much water use along the Republican River in Nebraska that there's not enough left over to deliver what is due and owing to Kansas under an interstate river compact.

So, Nebraska's natural resource districts, or at least two of them, came up with the harebrained idea of siphoning off water from the Platte — during periods of high flow — and diverting it into the Republican River. (This might sound familiar right here in Kansas, as irrigators in southwest Kansas have suggested tapping the Missouri River in far northeast Kansas during high flow, pumping it into a lake before dumping it into a concrete aqueduct to pump the precious liquid southwest to a waiting reservoir.)

Except, in Nebraska, water will be rerouted at a rate of 275 cubic feet — when there's high flow — in the hope of delivering 100 cfs to the Republican River.

That's 7.4 million gallons of water every hour from the Platte in the hope of delivering 2.7 million gallons to the Republican.

All that so state officials don't have to shut down Nebraska irrigators to meet the law laid out in the river compact with Kansas. Nebraska already has paid a hefty fine to Kansas for failing to deliver what the Sunflower state is due, and the U.S. Supreme Court said any additional shortages likely will bring heftier fines.

That's why Nebraska irrigators are saying this is a state problem, because if water isn't delivered as required, the state — the entity signing the compact — will pay a big fine. Never mind its the irrigators who are draining the water.

While I submitted my objection, if it does any good as the timing means I had to email it, even though it looks as if Nebraska only accepts comments by snail mail. Talk about old school.

But I place a huge amount of blame on Kansas for a lack of notice.

The illustrious Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (or as I like to call them, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks for Tourism), shortly after midnight Aug. 10, a week ago, sent out an item mentioning the transfer, suggesting Kansas folks might want to comment as well.

In the notice, KDWP&T said it had worked with Gov. Jeff Colyer to write a letter objecting to the transfer because of the threat of asian carp being introduced into the Republican River basin, eventually into the Kansas side.

I messaged the good folks at KDWP&T and asked what other comments they were filing. Three days later, because of the weekend, I learned that was it, the state's wildlife agency is going to do nothing else. Zero.

But they hope we do.

Sure, Colyer's comment might help, but it's weak. Terribly.

Nevermind the environmental side of things, the Asian Carp thing is huge. You see, the Republican flows into Milford, which flows into the Kansas River, so anything downstream is invaded. Also, Asian carp can back track,  gaining a foothold in the Smoky Hill, Saline and Solomon rivers.

Sure dams will stop them, but an errant catch downstream of Cedar Bluff, for example, could quickly be carried upstream and the cycle starts again.

As the guardian of all things Kansas wildlife, KDWP&T should have filed a full-fledged objection.

I did. If it does any good.

I'll try to keep track of this thing, but the web link I was visiting in Nebraska went dead, and the search function doesn't work. Makes it harder, but not impossible.

For those who know me, they know i'm a pain and will continue to dig away. That hasn't change.

See ya next time.