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Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Tom Schwarz. I am a <br />farmer from Bertrand, Nebraska, and I am here representing The Nebraska Water Users. <br />NWU is an organization that is devoted to educating the public regarding irrigated <br />agriculture and protecting the rights of those involved in irrigated agriculture. Our <br />membership is statewide. We represent both surface and ground water users in the <br />panhandle as well as south central Nebraska — here along the Platte River. <br />One of the first major issues in which our organization became involved was the <br />relicensing of FERC Projects 1417 and 1835 — the hydroelectric projects of Central <br />Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District (or Central) and Nebraska Public Power <br />District (or NPPD). Early in that proceeding environmental organizations, with the <br />backing of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, attempted to require the Districts to release <br />water that was stored for irrigation, supposedly to benefit endangered species. 80,000 <br />acre feet of water was dumped before the order was stayed — no benefits to the species <br />were ever shown. This example is not extreme. It is exactly what the Fish and Wildlife <br />Service is demanding now, unless we find another way to deal with their opinions and <br />desire for a "designer river" with the Service as the designer. <br />The truth is, and I am sure any competent hydrologist can confirm this, if you <br />opened up the gates on every dam in the North Platte river, you still would not and could <br />not achieve the Service's Target Flows, nor would you achieve the designer river vision <br />that the Service proposes. The Service's Target Flows and habitat Plans neither mimic <br />the pre - development river nor achieve any habitat maintenance to directly and <br />beneficially impact the endangered species in question. It appears to me then, that there <br />