Agenda Item 9, Platte River Recovery Updates and House Bill 07-1182

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with the issue of post -May 1 call protection in Congress, which has the ultimate authority for United States property and to bind the Bureau of Reclamation. • 4. Congress is also the appropriate body to consider the equities involved in the impact of the PMP. As we have previously noted, (1) the FEIS shows no correlation between water uses in the Upper North Platte River Basin and water shortages in the Nebraska recovery area, and (2) the Supreme Court and the Special Master in the Nebraska v. Wyoming lawsuit recognized that there is little or no hydrologic connection between water use above Pathfinder Reservoir in Wyoming and water shortage in the Nebraska recovery area. Yet, the Upper Basin water users are asked to bear the brunt of the PMP impacts. This inequity may not be given the weight it deserves by the Board of Control. It is up to Congress. 5. The shortcomings of the FEIS are also properly before Congress as the Board of Control cannot remedy its deficiencies. As we have noted, Appendix F of the final Modified Decree mandates that the Bureau of Reclamation cannot proceed with the PMP until it has been appropriately considered under the National Environmental Policy Act. As the impacts of a post -May 1 call were not even considered in the FEIS, such a call cannot be part of the approved PRRIP program. 6. The North Platte River is already overappropriated. There is simply no additional water available for storage in Pathfinder Reservoir, and no new water will be created by way of the PMP. In addition, the environmental and municipal accounts contemplated for the PMP will store water on an equal priority basis with all other users of the Reservoir. This • becomes an additional demand for the full, unrestricted 1.016 million acre -feet of existing storage capacity in the Reservoir. Irrigators in the Upper North Platte River basin are asked to give up their water rights for both the PRRIP and municipalities. Congress, and specifically the Water and Power and Power Subcommittee, is the appropriate forum to provide the relief necessary for the water users in the Upper North Platte River Basin. Amending Senate Bill 752 now with the language proposed in our previous comments will achieve that very end and lessen the chance for future disputes on the PMP implementation. We thank you again for the opportunity to comment on Senate Bill 752, for your questions on the appropriate mechanism to provide post -May 1 call protection, and for your interest in the Upper North Platte River Basin. 15308