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Construction on the power plant and dam began in the early 1970s, just as the environmental issues began to be a serious consideration in development projects. However, Grayrocks was a rather unusual case of deyelopment versus preservation in that the outcome was a negotiated settlement. This agreement was widely hailed as a promising sign that environmental disputes were amenable to mediation and compromise without the considerable expense and delay inherent in exhaustive adjudication. To many observers--both environmentalists and developers--the Grayrocks case has also provided an arresting demonstration of the potential for using the Endangered Species Act to affect energy and water resource development. The environmental issue that successfully intruded on the development plans was the concern about the impact of increased water consumption on the whooping crane critical habitat downstream on the Platte River. Although each of these observations about Grayrocks has a certain valid- ity, their unqualified acceptance risks oversimplifying a very complex situa- tion. In fact, this was not simply a case of environment versus development. There were at least six identifiable interests in the case, the outcome of which depended upon an uneasy coalition of downstream environmental and devel- opment interests. In this case study, an attempt will be made to unravel these complexities. We begin with a short case history. This will be followed by a discussion of the principal environmental issue in the case and the relationship between water resource development on the Laramie and the survival of the whooping crane, which inc ludes a brief discussion of whether this environmental goal could be met by other means. Then we turn to an examination of the outcomes of the case: its effect on the distribution of resources (especially ~ater), its likely effect on future water use in the Platte Basin, and its effect on whooping cranes. A. Case History Early in 1971, a number of public utilities in the Midwestern and Mountain States met to discuss the need for large-scale power generation facilities in the region. A year later, this group, led by the Basin Electric Power Cooper- ative, announced intentions of building a large coal-fired power plant and associated facilities. This was to be known as the Missouri Bsin Power Proj- ect. After a year of preliminary studies, it was agreed to build three 500-MW units, with the output to be shared among the six cooperatives involved. By 27