On the evening of Thursday, October 19, 2006, a group of Nebraskans gathered at NET Television Studios to participate in a discussion about water management policies facing the state of Nebraska. The result was Your Water, a By The People discussion convened by NET Television, the University of Nebraska at Kearney's Department of Political Science, and the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center.

In Your Water, Nebraskans discussed the controversies surrounding the Interstate Republic River Compact, the Platte River Habitat Recovery Plan, and a variety of other water quality and quantity issues affecting the environmental and economic well-being of the state. Four senators from the Unicameral's Natural Resources Committee—Senator Gail Kopplin, Senator Chris Langemeier, Senator LeRoy Louden, and Senator Ed Schrock—joined the two-hour dialogue, engaging participants and infusing the discussion with policy expertise about these difficult and complex issues. The Public Policy Center also administered pre-event and post-event surveys about water management issues as part of the project's research component.

For a brief background and discussion guide, please read Water: The Issue of the Decade.

The PPC has archived of many of our events online; to watch the NETV presentation of this event online click here.

Final Report: The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center surveyed event participants to see if their participation in a forum such as this changed their understanding of the issues. The results of this survey can be read at Your Water: A Citizen Deliberation.

The NET Television production of Your Water aired on the following dates:

NET 1
Thu Nov 30, 7pm and Wed Dec 6, 8pm
(Click here to view video segments from the program. The show is available in 3 parts, links are located at the bottom of the page.)

NET 2
Sat Dec 2, 12 noon and Sat Dec 30, 4pm

Your Water is a continuation of a partnership between NET Television, the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, and PBS MacNeil/Lehrer Productions' national By The People project to engage individuals in civic discussion about the important local, national, and global concerns that exist today.

Sponsored by:
University of Nebraska Public Policy Center
University of Nebraska at Kearney
NET Television

Local support for this By the People Deliberation project was provided by the Nebraska Humanities Council, National Center for Outreach, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

For other water policy projects, click here.