Subcommittee on Water and Power Legislative Hearing H.R. 1462

Home Browse Search

April 25, 2007 Written Testimony of Don Kraus The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District Before the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power In Support of S. 752 My name is Don Kraus, General Manager of The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District (District), with headquarters in Holdrege, Nebraska. My testimony today is offered in support of S. 752 and its authorization of Department of the Interior's participation in the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (Program) for three threatened or endangered species using the central Platte River and one using the lower Platte. The District operates the Kingsley Dam Project (Project) in south - central Nebraska. Using water from the North Platte and Platte Rivers, the Project directly provides irrigation water to approximately 200,000 acres, groundwater recharge resulting from project operations indirectly provides irrigation to an additional 300,000 acres and recreation benefits to over 1,000,0000 visitors annually. The Project also generates hydroelectric power at four hydropower plants under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In the mid- 1980s, the District applied to renew its FERC license, a process which included consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The relicensing proceeding continued through many years and cost many millions of dollars as a result of conflicting scientific and legal opinions on ESA issues. Concurrent with the relicensing proceeding, other water users in the Platte basin were also entering ESA consultation with the Service, and together the complex regulatory conflicts were headed toward what was then popularly called an "ESA train wreck." As a result of these ongoing conflicts regarding ESA issues in the Platte basin, the District and many other entities started to seek a comprehensive basin -wide approach to addressing ESA requirements. The process went through many phases, starting with a simple Memorandum of Understanding in 1994 and culminating with the Platte River Program (Program) that is the subject of S. 752. At its core, the program provides a way for existing and potential future water uses throughout the Platte basin to operate while meeting the regulatory requirements of the ESA. Indeed, the District's FERC licensing was resolved in 1998 because FERC assumed that the Program would be developed and implemented. Since that time the District has been making millions of dollars of contributions of habitat and water for endangered species that will become a part of the Program. Key to reaching agreement on the District's commitments was the Program's assurance of mitigation for the impacts to water development after 1997, and the