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The Platte basin permitting crisis would lead directly to the governors of three states and <br />the Secretary of the Department of Interior signing a memorandum of agreement in June, 1994 <br />that pledged a good faith effort to construct a cooperative program to restore and protect critical <br />habitat in Nebraska for the whooping crane and other listed species. If this cooperative agreement <br />were to fall through, then the FWS would then return to individual ESA section 7 consultations. <br />Such a threat constituted strong incentive for basin water users collectively seek relief from the <br />jeopardy opinions to which they were subject. To once again gain a modicum of control over <br />their operating environment-to obtain "regulatory certainty," water users would have no option <br />but to join in a collaboration with each other, environmentalists, and the Department of Interior to <br />create a basin-wide solution. <br />18