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North Platte River Basin <br />Walden, Colorado 8.26.03 <br />22 <br />Agriculture, conservation districts <br />The North Platte Decree strongly controls water in the basin: The North Platte <br />Decree limits how much water can be diverted, stored, and used within the basin. <br />Thus, it will be very difficult to make any changes to water management within the <br />basin. The basin may actually have more to lose than to gain by trying to make <br />changes in the compact. <br />Better stream management and in-stream flows are needed: Stream <br />management and in-stream flows were primary concerns. With current <br />management, water is lost to Nebraska and Wyoming. <br />The Endangered Species Act limits the availability of water: Under the Act, water <br />is decreed downstream to Nebraska through controlled releases for the purpose <br />of supporting endangered species habitats. The decreed flows limit how much <br />water the basin can use. <br />Water quality regulations could affect agriculture and commercial activity: The EPA <br />is reclassifying streams, mostly for recreation, to unreasonable water quality <br />levels. This could limit agricultural water use. Also, if coal-bed methane drilling <br />increases, the discharges and byproducts could create additional water quality <br />issues. <br />Better forest management is needed to increase flows into streams: It was <br />suggested that the state, not the federal government, should take over forest <br />management for better water yield. <br />More storage may be needed to accommodate new activity in the basin: Even <br />though the basin has only come close once to using its water supply from the <br />North Platte Decree, and growth has been stagnant within the basin, there is still <br />a concern about the need for more storage. Increased ?hobby ranches? and <br />recreation use may create more demand. One way to potentially increase storage <br />