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CHAPTER TWO: <br />CHANGE ON THE RIVER AND THREAT TO SPECIES <br />"While I know the standard claim is the Yosemite, Niagara Falls, the Upper <br />Yellowstone and the like, offered the greatest natural shows, I am not so sure but <br />the prairies and plains, while less stunning at first light, last longer, fill the esthetic <br />sense fuller, precede all the rest, and make North America's characteristic <br />landscape" <br />-Walt Whitman, From Light (1997) <br />The waters of the Platte River Basin are some of the most intensively exploited on the <br />planet. By the time the South Platte River meets the North to form the main stem, both tributaries <br />have been harnessed repeatedly to the utilitarian needs of industrial agriculture, urban life, and <br />recreation, a pattern sustained across Nebraska. Hydrologists estimate that in some stretches the <br />waters are used an average of eight times as diverted water returns to the river for re-use by <br />agriculture, urban treatment plants, groundwater use and re-charge (Ring 1999). People and other <br />living things are fundamentally dependent upon multiple re-uses of repeated return flows. <br />Agriculturally, these streams supply surface water and groundwater irrigation to over two million <br />acres of land in the three states. Human engineering of Platte basin waters for these multiple <br />uses has exacted a high toll on the river and associated riparian ecosystems. <br />Platte River Basin <br />Wyoming Nebraska <br />Pathfinder Res. ' <br />Semirwe Res. <br />Sinclair LakeMcConaughy <br />' <br /> Laram' NorthPlatt <br />? River ? <br /> R ? Grand <br /> Lexington Island <br />-------- ---- - ulesburg Overton <br />Northgate d ? <br /> River South Platte <br /> Gre ersey River ? <br /> Balzac I Critical Habitat <br /> <br />Henderson I <br />r_______-_- <br />Not to Scale Denver ? <br /> ? Kansas <br /> I <br />Colorado i <br />Figure 2 The Platte River Basin <br />6