Platte River Channel Becomes a Focus for Platte River Cooperative Program Studies2001

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Messrs. Lochhead, Simpson, and Robotham 4 potential exists for improving upon present conditions. Nebraska and the owners of Lake McConaughy have endorsed a plan to reserve storage for wildlife in the lake. Even though the Denver Water Department, Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, and Central Platte Natural Resources District have embarked on plans to meet future water needs through water conservation and water management efficiency, the negotiating group has not yet addressed the question of whether conservation and efficient practices can be employed to meet nontraditional water needs. The points at issue are not limited to what the species need, but include the kinds of operational and legal questions that the negotiating group has not yet addressed and which is either not available to the Service or lies outside the Service's areas of expertise. All of this is to say that the Service is eager to participate in discussions and negotiations regarding the attainability of its flow targets, but there has to be some reliable information on attainability in order for such discussions to be productive. Therefore, the scope of the Service's responses to comments on its target flows are necessarily limited to the kinds of pertinent and available information upon which the flow targets are founded, i.e., biological and hydrological information. Flow Targets The Service identified targets in specific amounts and during specific periods, compatible with water resource administration (Bowman 1994). Targets are to be implemented in combination with landscape recovery measures. 'Monitoring will be necessary to determine effects of actions and to guide adaptive management methods as the Program progresses. Flow targets provide guidance with a long -term perspective. Water management involves long -term arrangements, commitments, investments, contracts, and analysis of results. Desired results (e.g., habitat changes) take many years to appear. If undesired impacts also appear, they can be extremely difficult to reverse or remediate once they have taken hold. Specific Comments Page 5. paragraph 1: Whooping Crane Comment: "However, the models output also shows that a flow of 1,800 cfs, for example, provides 95% of the maximum weighted habitat units . . Reducing spring migration flows during the March 23 - May 10 time period from the maximum to 95% of the maximum would result in a water savings . . . ." In setting the targets for the whooping cranes, the Service considered empirical data, professional opinion, and habitat model outputs. For example, the roost model indicates that 1,700 cfs provides only 75 percent of the habitat in the river reach where most (about 46 percent) of the whooping crane use occurs.