From staff and wire reports | Posted: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - Wyoming recognizes the need to take care of endangered species in the Platte River Basin and believes cooperating with other states is better than each state dealing individually with the federal government, a state official said Tuesday.
Deputy State Engineer Harry LaBonde was responding to the release of the final environmental impact statement on a plan to protect endangered species in the basin, primarily in Nebraska.
The document represents years of legal wrangling and negotiations among the three states through which the Platte River flows: Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska. The plan calls for a coordinated effort by the three states and the federal government, rather than individual approaches.
"To me, that is the real benefit to Wyoming," LaBonde said.
Curt Brown of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said the plan is intended to ensure there's adequate water and habitat for four species of threatened and endangered birds and fish while looking out for the water users.
"This is an endangered species recovery implementation program. There's been a loss of habitat in the central Platte Valley over the last 150 years," said Brown, the environmental study's manager.
The Platte River in central Nebraska is a major stop for migrating whooping cranes and home to the piping plover, least tern and pallid sturgeon. They're all considered threatened or endangered species.
Biologists estimate that whooping cranes numbered from 500 to 1,300 in the area in the mid-1800s, plummeted to fewer than 20 in the 1940s and rebounded to 215 by last February.
The Platte's two branches start in the Colorado mountains, flow through Wyoming and Colorado, and merge in Nebraska. With its 15 major dams and reservoirs, the river supplies water to about 3.5 million people, irrigates farms, generates electricity through hydropower plants and provides recreation and wildlife habitat.
"The Platte is the lifeblood of these states," said Chad Smith, director of the Nebraska office of the conservation group American Rivers.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to issue an opinion on the plan in early June. The document, now open for public comment, also needs the approval of the governor of each state and the secretary of the interior.
Of the four options for managing the Platte, the plan recommends one that calls for acquiring at least 10,000 acres of wildlife habitat in western and central Nebraska and increasing river flows at key times by 130,000 acre feet to 150,000 acre feet.
An acre foot of water is enough water to cover an acre of land at a depth of a foot, which is enough to supply one or two families for a year.
Much of the additional volume could be produced by changing the timing of releases from reservoirs. Water would be stored during the winter and released in summer and spring when the birds and fish need it.
The proposed increases would make up only a third of the water shortages identified by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Brown said the plan covers the first 13 years of a cooperative management scheme, representing a compromise among the competing interests of farmers, wildlife and municipalities.
"We're trying to take a significant first step," Brown said.
Dan Luecke, a consultant for the National Wildlife Federation, is a member of the panel of state and federal wildlife and water managers and environmentalists that wrote the recommended alternative and will oversee the plan's implementation. He said environmentalists see the plan as a big move forward, even if the proposed water flows aren't as much as they would like.
"I think it's going to be a program that nobody's going to love, but hopefully everyone can live with," said Duane Hovorka of the Nebraska office of the National Wildlife Federation and another author of the preferred alternative.
Alan Berryman, head of engineering for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, said the agreement gives water users a framework for moving forward with water projects.
"I look at this as maybe the best deal we can get to resolve endangered species issues and still allow human needs to be met," said Berryman, a member of the governing committee.
Berryman said the plan will also provide important ongoing information on the fish and bird populations and what they need.
Luecke said if the habitat doesn't improve and more water is eventually needed, water users might have to buy more or conserve more water.
"Each of these states is going to have to come to grips with their individual water problems," said Smith of American Rivers.
The plan will cost an estimated $317.3 million, with $157 million coming from the Interior Department and the rest from the states. Wyoming's share in the cost of the plan is $6 million. It's unclear exactly where that money will come from.
Negotiations on use of the Platte started in the early 1990s. Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska signed an agreement in 1997 after the Fish and Wildlife Service said water projects on the river threatened the vulnerable wildlife.