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In April, the Republican River Water Conservation District Board put out notice of possible changes to water use fees for irrigating crops. At the board鈥檚 quarterly meeting Tuesday, however, members did not decide on whether a fee-structure change process will occur. Board members also voted on how to handle formerly inactive wells coming back on in the basin.

Rural Northeast Colorado has fewer employed artists than any other region in the state, according to a 2020 report. While musicians, dancers and fashion designers may sell a lot less out there, they are still creating. KUNC asked two musicians, one very young and one much older, to meet and discuss their craft.

Water feeds Northeast Colorado鈥檚 corn and wheat fields, creating a booming agricultural economy. But that water is disappearing from the tributaries that feed the Republican River, flowing 450 miles from the cropland of Yuma County through Kansas and Nebraska. In this special episode of Colorado Edition from KUNC, we explore the water crisis in Colorado鈥檚 Republican River basin.

Last November, the 17-member Republican River Water Conservation District board more than doubled the annual fee farmers in the basin pay per irrigated acre. That increase allowed the board to also increase the amount offered to those who chose to stop irrigating. Interest in the program has since gone up, but some feel the fee is unfair.

How did the Republican River get its name? According to History Nebraska, Nebraska鈥檚 Democratic Gov. Frank Morrison would jokingly ask Republican friends if the river got its name 鈥渂ecause it鈥檚 so shallow or so crooked?鈥� But the name has nothing to do with the modern political party or its predecessors. It鈥檚 a reference to a European settler nickname for a band of the Pawnee Nation.

Little to no water flows from the Republican River's South Fork in southeast Yuma and northern Kit Carson counties into Kansas and Nebraska, where it merges with the main river. Officials have a plan that could cost about $40 million to save the fork.

Part one of KUNC's Republican River series showed how dropping river flows and groundwater levels impact farmers and ranchers in northeastern Colorado. Part two examined a portion of the history that got the basin to this point. Part three explores potential farmer-centric solutions and the impact they could have in Colorado and the other two states dependent on the river basin's water.

Part one of KUNC's Republican River series showed how dropping river flows and groundwater levels are impacting farmers and ranchers in northeastern Colorado. From a 1930s flood to extended drought today, the river has been managed by three states, sometimes cooperatively and sometimes combatively. To meet the terms of a decades-old compact, 25,000 irrigated acres of Colorado farmland must soon be shut down. Part two looks at part of the history that got the basin to this point.

The Colorado River gets a lot of attention, but it鈥檚 not the only multi-state river that starts in Colorado. And it鈥檚 definitely not the only one facing a water shortage. On the eastern side of the continental divide is the Republican River. It flows through the cropland of Yuma County and feeds into Kansas and Nebraska. In the first of a three-part series, KUNC explores the economic and environmental challenges the Republican River basin faces.