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<br />Let us now turn to an examination of the terms of the agreement. First <br />of all, the plaintiffs withdrew their objections to the Corps of Engineers 404 <br />Permit and the REA loan guarantee and agreed not to challenge the adequacy of <br />the revised Environmental Impact Statement then in preparation. Second, the <br />agreement established a limitation on consumptive use of water at the power <br />plant of 23 250 acre ft/yr. Third, MBPP agreed to operate the reservoir so as <br />to deliver certain minimum streamflows at the mouth of the Laramie. These <br />minimum streamflow requirements are given in Table V. Fourth, a trust fund <br />dedicated to the preservation of the Platte River Whooping Crane Habitat Main- <br />tenance Trust was established with $7.5 million from MBPP. Fifth, Basin Elec- <br />tric and the other power companies involved agreed to lobby the Wyoming State <br />Legislature for an amendment to state water laws that would make it more dif- <br />ficult to transfer water rights or change the point of diversion. <br />Finally, it was stipulated that the agreement would take effect only if <br />the Grayrocks Dam and Reservoir were granted an exemption from the Endangered <br />Species Act by the newly created Endangered Species Committee. <br />Effects of the Agreement on the Flow Qf the Laramie <br />Two parts of the agreement--the maximum power plant consumption and the <br />minimum flow requirements of Table V--directly affect the flow of water at the <br />mouth of the Laramie. In this section we attempt a quantification of these <br />effects by simulating the operation of the Grayrocks Reservoir with and without <br />the agreement. The incoming flows for this simulation were provided by the <br />historical record of average monthly flows for 1927 to 1978 as reported by the <br />United States Geological Survey. In other words, this simulation estimates <br />the effects of the dam and power plant on the Laramie under flow conditions <br />that exactly duplicate the historical record. <br />The "without agreement" simulation assmnes tht the MBPP had been completed <br />according to the original plan. Under this scheme, the average net depletions <br />would be about 45 000 acre-ft/yr: about 14 000 in power plant consumption, <br />9000 1n reservoir evaporation (for a full reservoir), and 22 500 net consmnp- <br />tion by the Corn Creek Irrigation Project. Return flows from Corn Creek would <br />deliver perhaps 7500 acre-ft/yr into the North Platte, assuming a net consump- <br />tion of 1.0 acre-ft/ acre. This is about what was reported by the Special <br />Master in Nebraska v. Wyoming. If the conveyance loss rate were 0.16% per <br />mile, the operation "without agreement" of Grayrocks Dam would reduce the flow <br />in the Platte at Overton, Nebraska, by an average of 2.5%. <br /> <br />48 <br />