BOARD00167 ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 5/22/2007
• Description: WSP Section - Platte River Recovery Updates
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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with the issue of post-May I call protection in Congress, which has the ultimate authority
for United States property and to bind the Bureau of Reclamation. .

4. Congress is also the appropriate body to consider the equities involved in the impact of
the PMP. As we have previously noted, (1) the FElS shows no correlation between water
uses in the Upper North Platte River Basin and water shortages in the Nebraska recovery
area, and (2) the Supreme Court and the Special Master in the Nebraska v. Wyoming
lawsuit recognized that there is little or no hydrologic connection between water use
above Pathfinder Reservoir in Wyoming and water shortage in the Nebraska recovery
area. Yet, the Upper Basin water users are asked to bear the brunt of the PMP impacts.
This inequity may not be given the weight it deserves by the Board of Control. It is up to
Congress.

5. The shortcomings of the FEIS are also properly before Congress as the Board of Control
cannot remedy its deficiencies. As we have noted, Appendix F of the final Modified
Decree mandates that the Bureau of Rec1amati0n cannot proceed with the PMP until it
has been appropriately considered under the National Environmental Policy Act. As the
impacts of a post-May 1 call were not even con,sidered in the FEIS, such a call cannot be
part of the approved PRRIP program.

6.

The North Platte River is already overappropriated. There is simply no additional water
available for storage in Pathfinder Reservoir, and no new water will be created by way of
the PMP. In addition, the environmental and rnunicipal accounts contemplated for the
PMP will store water on an equal priority basis !with all other users ofthe Reservoir. This
becomes an additional demand for the full, unrestricted 1.016 million acre-feet of existing
storage capacity in the Reservoir. Irrigators in the Upper North Platte River basin are
asked to give up their water rights for both the *RRIP and municipalities.

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Congress, and specifically the Water and Power and Power Subcommittee, is the appropriate
forum to provide the relief necessary for the water users in the Upper North Platte River Basin.
Amending Senate Bill 752 now with the language proposed in our previous comments will
achieve that very end and lessen the chance for future disputes on the PMP implementation.

We thank you again for the opportunity to comment on Senate Bill 752, for your questions on the
appropriate mechanism to provide post-May 1 call protection, and for your interest in the Upper
North Platte River Basin.

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