From staff and wire reports | Posted: Friday, May 9, 2008 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - Legislation that supplies the federal share of money for the Platte River recovery program in Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska was signed into law Thursday.
The bill President Bush signed provides $157 million to help carry out a three-state agreement with the federal government. The agreement provides guidance on managing the Platte River to accommodate endangered species and the growing number of cities and farmers using the river.
"Now with those resources available, we can actually start to move the implementation forward," said Deputy Wyoming State Engineer Harry LaBonde, adding that the program had been on hold pending authorization of the funds.
The bulk of the $157 million is targeted for land acquisition and other expenses in the central Platte River region in Nebraska. None of the funds are directly earmarked for projects in Wyoming, LaBonde said.
"Most of it is targeted toward this key area of habitat in the central Platte," he added.
Wyoming has agreed to contribute $6 million for an extension of the dam at Pathfinder Reservoir, an effort to compensate for storage capacity lost to sediment buildup. The program calls for some reservoir water to be sent downstream to preserve endangered species.
A group of Wyoming irrigators called the Upper North Platte River Water Users has protested the use of water from the reservoir in the project. A hearing on the dispute in front of the State Board of Control has been scheduled for October.
Negotiations on use of the Platte started in the 1990s, in part because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said water projects on the river threatened vulnerable wildlife.
The governors of Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska approved the plan in 2006.
The bird species at risk are the whooping crane, piping plover and least tern; the fish at risk is the pallid sturgeon.
They're all considered threatened or endangered species, jeopardized in large part by man's encroachment on their Platte River habitat.
Federal experts say the Platte flow is around 417,000 acre feet a year under what the endangered species need to thrive in the river's habitat. One acre foot of water supplies the average family of four for 12 to 18 months.
In Nebraska, the species' peril had put at risk millions of tax dollars and millions more in state agriculture revenue. Farmers need billions of gallons of Platte water to slake the thirst of corn, wheat, soybeans and other crops grown in the Platte Basin.
In order to protect those species, that shortfall must be made up somewhere, and the federal government had as leverage Bureau of Reclamation reservoir water that courses downstream to thirsty farmers and others - especially irrigators in the Nebraska Panhandle.
Under the law, each entity must negotiate for new or renewed uses of federally developed water.
The plan will cost about $317 million and will cover the first 13 years of the recovery plan. What happens after those 13 years will be negotiated.
Of the plan's current total cost, $157 million is coming from the U.S. Department of Interior and the rest from the three states in cash, land and water.
Colorado is pitching 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 through 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.
A governance committee made up of representatives from the three states, water users, environmental groups and federal agencies will implement the program and disburse funds.