NATE JENKINS Associated Press writer | Posted: Sunday, October 29, 2006 12:00 am
LINCOLN, Neb. - Gov. Dave Heineman on Friday said he will sign a three-state agreement that could improve and protect one of Nebraska's most vital resources, the Platte River, but that groundwater irrigators say might eventually cripple portions of the rural economy.
"It provides regulatory certainty; it protects our state's farmers and ranchers from potential federal actions that could be detrimental," Heineman said about his decision to sign the Platte River Cooperative Agreement. He said he possibly spent more time on the issue than any other since becoming governor.
"This is a difficult decision," he said. "There's no question the state is divided."
Besides Nebraska, the cooperative agreement includes Wyoming, Colorado and the U.S. Department of Interior. Colorado Gov. Bill Owens signed the agreement Friday and Wyoming is expected to sign.
The river recovery plan called for in the agreement includes acquiring land for wildlife habitat in Nebraska and increasing river flows at key times. It will cost about $317 million, with $157 million coming from the Interior Department and the rest from the three states in cash, land and water. Federal dollars have not yet received final approval.
The plan is designed to help guide Platte River Basin entities in complying with the Endangered Species Act while retaining their access to federal water, land or funding. The goal is to improve the Platte River and protect habitat for the whooping crane, piping plover, interior least tern and pallid sturgeon.
"This is the way we should do business in Nebraska: do it in a collaborative manner and try to tackle a problem that does right by the river but with people in mind," said Chad Smith, a member of the governor's Water Policy Task Force and director of the Nebraska office of American Rivers.
Reservoirs in Wyoming and the booming populations on the front range of Colorado are starved for Platte River water, along with Nebraska irrigators.
Surface water irrigators will be helped by more certain allotments of water and aid in complying with the Endangered Species Act, Smith said. He conceded that the agreement "will be tough for groundwater irrigators to deal with," as it comes on top of a new water law in the state that can limit irrigation.
Under the state's relatively new water law (LB962), much of the Platte River basin has already been declared fully or overappropriated for irrigation.
"It's certainly a major change," Ron Bishop, manager of the Central Platte Natural Resources District, said of the agreement. "We start drying up major areas of irrigated land. The irrigation economy is the backbone of the central and western Platte Basin."
"For communities up and down the river, they will have an (unrecoverable) cost. It will be lost," Bishop said.
Some farm groups have endorsed the plan, though begrudgingly. The Nebraska Farm Bureau has called it "the lesser of several evils." An advisory group recommended Heineman sign the plan.
Heineman's long-awaited announcement comes on the heels of a report commissioned by the Central Platte NRD, whose customers rely heavily on groundwater. It looked at costs the recovery plan would cause by taking land out of production, and the ripple effect that would have on everything from farm-implement dealers and grain elevators to Main Streets and seed-corn sellers. The study found that the financial hit to the state - should the agreement be signed - would actually be about $160 million less than if it were not signed.
But should the state remain in similar agreements after the year 2020, the scales would tip the other way, the study found, costing maybe $137 million more and eventually taking a half-million irrigated acres out of production. Should the current plan go into effect, 72,000 of the 2 million irrigated acres in the Platte River basin will be taken out of production over the next 13 years, with the possibility of more, said Bishop. Heineman said the exact number of acres is not yet known.
Heineman can pull the state out of the agreement, if he wants to, according to an opinion from Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning's office. If the other partners act in bad faith, "I will not hesitate to withdraw," Heineman said.
To pay the $317 million cost of the plan, Colorado plans to pitch in $24 million in cash, and Wyoming $6 million in cash. Nebraska doesn't have to pay any cash.
The remaining $130 million for the plan is being contributed with water and land credits: The three states must together contribute 80,000 acre-feet of water, an estimated $120 million value, and Wyoming and Nebraska will contribute about 26,500 acres of land, a $10 million value.
Key components in the plan include providing 10,000 acres of suitable habitat along the river in western and central Nebraska, and increasing river flows by about 130,000 to 150,000 acre-feet of water a year.
An acre-foot of water is enough water to supply one or two families for a year.