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<br />I <br />I <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />'. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br /> <br />000660 <br /> <br />the migration route provide whooping cranes the opportunity to obtain food items <br />that are necessary for survival and successful reproduction (U.S.FWS 1987). <br />The historical consumptive demands placed on the river can not easily be <br />removed. The decrease in flow rates extends into Wyoming and Colorado <br />where the North Platte River and South Platte River originate. A solution to the <br />decreasing flows, based on simply increasing the annual flow of the Platte River <br />system, would disrupt the economies of three states and have catastrophic <br />social and environmental impacts (Pitts 1995). An alternative engineered <br />solution is available to provide the quantity of wet meadow complex needed by <br />the endangered whooping crane. <br /> <br />2.1 Objective <br />The objective of this project is to identify an alternative using groundwater <br />recharge as augmentation for restoring the wet meadow complex within the <br />critical habitat portion of the Central Platte River basin. More specifically, this <br />report includes: <br />1. A design of a groundwater recharge basin at the Lillian Annette Rowe <br />Sanctuary wet meadow site, approximately 10 miles north of Minden, <br />Nebraska along the south channel of the Central Platte River. <br />2. An analysis of the recharge basin using CSUPAW (Colorado ~tate <br />University Pit End Well) software to model effeets of recharge on the <br />adjacent wet meadow area, including a sensitivity analysis of model <br />variables dependent on the natural characteristics of the recharge site. <br />3. A suggested operating guideline for the basin including recommended <br />recharge rates for given basin geometry, possible time periods for <br />recharge, and possible recharge sources. <br /> <br />2 <br />