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

Platte River Basin Swdy

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the operation and management of the entire Platte River. The ESA is forcing
the various stakeholders in the Platte River, including water users, water
developers, state and federal management and regulatory agencies and
environmental organizations, into the current Memorandum of Agreement
(MOA)/Cooperative Agreement process to develop a basin-wide recovery
program for the endangered species of the Platte River. This ongoing effort
represents the best available opportunity to develop a recovery program for
the Platte River basin endangered species, thereby allowing water resources
development and management to proceed, while complying with the
Endangered Species Act. The states, together with the Department of the
Interior, have assumed leadership roles in the MOAlCooperative Agreement
process.

Federal agency contributions to the MOAlCooperative Agreement process
have been varied. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has previously
developed estimates of species' habitat requirements through the Platte River
Joint Management Study. The Service's continuing data collection efforts are
an important task in development of a successful cooperative agreement. The
Bureau of Reclamation has played an important role through its development
of revised project operation procedures and project modifications to produce
flows for the critical habitat. Potential contributions by the U.S. Geological
Survey have been hindered because of that agency's reluctance to involve
itself in policy matters. The Central Valley Improvement Project in
California, the Upper Mississippi River Environmental Restoration Project,
the Everglades Environmental Restoration Project, and the Columbia River
Basin Salmon Restoration Program provide examples of environmental
restoration projects that have been, or are being, planned and constructed
according to congressional authorizations of various specificities. Based on
these examples, congressional authorization provides direction and funding,
which can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the federal agencies in
solving environmental restoration problems. Such congressional
authorization in the case ofthe Platte River would depend on the desires of
the three states; it is unclear whether sufficient interest and support exists
among Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming for increasing the involvement of
the federal agencies in providing habitat flows in the Big Bend reach.

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Attempted resolution of disputes over interpretation of the 1945 and 1953
Supreme Court decrees for the North Platte River has been the basis of the
Nebraska v. Wyoming litigation. Most of these disputes involve traditional
water resources conflicts concerning construction of additional reservoir
storage, diversion of water from the alluvium of the North Platte River by
wells, allowable irrigated acreage under terms of the decrees, and operation

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