Director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources leaving Aug. 2

Tom Riley, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, testifies about proposed Perkins County Canal in 2022. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN — The director of Nebraska’s Department of Natural Resources will leave his position next month after a tenure that included the state’s focus on water resources and recreation.

Gov. Jim Pillen announced Tuesday that Director Tom Riley’s last day is Aug. 2. Riley, first appointed by then-Gov. Pete Ricketts in November 2020, will transition back to the private sector. The department’s responsibilities include surface water, groundwater, floodplain management, dam safety and the storage of natural resources.

“I appreciate Director Riley’s public service to the state, and I wish him the best in all future endeavors,” Pillen said in a statement.

Information about interim leadership and the pending appointment of a new agency director will be announced in the future, a news release states.

In the past four years, state leaders had turned their sights toward securing water rights from Colorado and building a huge, sandpit lake for recreation between Omaha and Lincoln. The latter project came as a result of ideas formed from a special legislative committee — the Statewide Tourism and Recreational Water Access and Resource Sustainability (STARWARS) Committee.

The committee was formed to conduct a comprehensive study of certain geographical areas statewide and identify potential projects and opportunities that would be beneficial to the state, including economic development, tourism and recreation, flood control and water sustainability.

Riley has helped promote and assist lawmakers in understanding the necessity of the so-called Perkins County Canal first outlined in a 1923 compact with Colorado. It is designed to secure water rights that Nebraska officials say the state is owed.

Meanwhile, Colorado officials have said the effort is a “canal to nowhere” and a waste of money. The Legislature appropriated $574 million in 2023, pushing back on an effort to shrink the cost.

Both projects remain in the early stages, such as the feasibility of the lake and possible legal challenges for the canal. Pillen said most recently this summer that if legal fees got too high, he would abandon the Perkins County Canal project.

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