JULESBURG — The town hall in the far-northeastern corner of the state wasn’t billed as specific to one topic, but as soon as Colorado’s attorney general opened the floor to questions, there was clearly a dominant one on the minds of many in rural Sedgwick County.

“Are we going to lose our water?” a woman seated near the front asked at the event earlier this month — the first question of the night.

Residents of the Eastern Plains community have found themselves caught in the middle of a political dispute over water between Nebraska and Colorado. Nebraska’s renewed plans to build the Perkins County Canal — named for the county just over the border — could divert much of the South Platte River winter water supply relied upon by the area’s agricultural economy.

Some landowners have also fac

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