From the Pueblo Chieftain (Robert Boczkiewicz):
Arkansas Valley landowners who oppose a plan for exporting water from the valley contend a key claim in a lawsuit opposing the plan will remain regardless of a judge’s pending decision. The landowners group, Arkansas Valley Native LLC, makes that contention in a new filing in U.S. District Court…
As part of the agreement [Between Reclamation and the Lower Arkansas Water Conservancy District], the Lower Arkansas district asked Brimmer to allow it to drop from the lawsuit its claim that the contract violates the 1958 law…
The landowners group’s new filing tells the judge that regardless of whether he allows the district to drop the claim, the same claim will remain in the landowners’ part of the lawsuit. They joined the lawsuit on the same side as the district, but the two plaintiffs now have opposing positions as the result of the district and Aurora agreeing to settle the city’s part of the lawsuit…
They own water rights, not part of the Fry-Ark Project, in the valley. Those landowners allege in their part of the lawsuit they and the public will be injured if the judge does not nullify the contract. The group wants the judge to hold in abeyance the Lower Arkansas district’s request to drop the issue of the 1958 law “until and unless” Brimmer grants a pending request to put the case on hold for two years. The district, Aurora and Reclamation, as part of the settlement agreement, jointly made the recent request to put the case on hold while the district and Aurora try to get Congress to change the law. The Arkansas Valley Native group opposes delaying court action. “This case needs resolution,” the group told the judge. “The court should deny the stay and resolve whether the contract violates the Fry-Ark Act and/or the Water Supply Act of 1958.”