WSP08290

• File Number: 8449.916
• Description: South Platte Projects
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Date: 8/1/1997
• Author: McLaughlin Water Eng
• Title: Platte River Basin Study
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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Executive Summary

Department of the Interior in June 1997 establishes a ten-member
Governance Committee composed of representatives of the states,
Department of the Interior, water users and environmental
organizations. The Governance Committee will oversee activities
under the Cooperative Agreement and will serve as a forum for
dispute resolution.

The governance structure established must be appropriate to make
decisions regarding future management of habitat vital to the
conservation of migratory bird populations that migrate south to
north across the entire nation. Colorado and Wyoming in particular
confront only the potential costs of the recovery effort and will receive
little direct benefit. Under these somewhat unique circumstances, the
federal and the state agencies must join together to decide these
Issues.

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5. The states need to be willing and politically able to develop certain
legal and institutional mechanisms to resolve water conflicts;
specifically, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming need to develop and
implement the legal and institutional mechanisms required for the
Platte River Basin Endangered Species Recovery Program. The state
of Nebraska needs to develop necessary legal and institutional
mechanisms to protect flow conditions in the Big Bend reach and
insure that flows targeted for meeting habitat flow requirements in
the Big Bend reach actually reach that destination. This may involve
developing a successor to Nebraska statute ~46-252 and the statute
incorporating LBlOB to protect surface flows intended for the Big
Bend reach from diversion by alluvial wells. Development by the
state of Nebraska of necessary legal and institutional mechanisms to
insure delivery of flows to the Big Bend region is required by the
Cooperative Agreement.

6. At this time, revival of river basin planning entities, such as the
Title II River Basin Commissions is not recommended. A common
recommendation for solving conflicts in water policy among states,
federal agencies, and local units of government is to establish a
planning entity for the entire river basin or watershed. For the Platte
River basin, an example of such an entity was the Missouri River
Basin Commission established under the Water Resources Planning
Act of 1967. A recommendation to reestablish a river basin
commission type of entity for the Platte River basin is not made here.
The Title II River Basin Commissions failed to achieve their

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