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ENDANGERED SPECIES PROTECTION AND WATER RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT by Winston Harrington ABSTRACT This report reviews the Endangered Species Act and its implementation, with spec ial attention given to the Act's recent Amendments. This Act has played a major role in litigation surrounding several recent water resource devel- opments. A case study of one such, the Missouri Basin Power Project, is discussed. In addition to a short case history, issues covered include the following: the link between the Power Project and its impact on the endangered species, its effect on the distribution of water resources, its effect on future deve lopment on the Platte River, and the extent to which a range of preservation options can be con~lidered under the Act. Tentative general conclusions will be drawn concerning the flexibility of the Act, its cost effective- ness, and its implications for future water resource development. I. ACTUAL VS POTENTIAL CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT AND WATER RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT The Endangered Spec ies Act does have within it the seeds of preventing the Western United States from properly utilizing its water resources, can seriously cripple Western agriculture, and can certainly have adverse impacts on farms, indeed on consumers, especially consumers of agricul- tural products and electrical energy. Statement of Roland C. Fisher, Colorado River Water Conservation District, before the House -Subcom- mittee on Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation and the Environment. They took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum, And charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em. Joni Mitchell, "Big Yellow Taxi" One of the earliest and most durable themes of the conservation movement has been the notion that human activity can be hazardous to wildlife and is sometimes the reason for the extinction of whole species. As early as the turn of the century, the recognition of threats to particular forms of wildlife 1