Platte River recovery

Colorado OKs pact to boost flows for Nebraska habitat

Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, January 30, 2006

Colorado will ante up nearly $24 million to buy land and secure water for endangered birds and fish that rely on the Platte River in Nebraska.

The hard-fought agreement with Nebraska, Wyoming and the federal government allows water utilities from Denver to Fort Collins to meet their obligations to protect four endangered species on the waterway: three birds - whooping cranes, piping plovers and interior least terns - and one fish - the pallid sturgeon.

"By federal law, we're required to answer to how we're affecting all those species," said Colorado Agriculture Commissioner Don Ament. "We've found a way to do it. This is a Cadillac program."

The Colorado Water Conservation Board, which is overseeing Colorado's role, approved the financing plan last week and expects the agreement to be signed by the governors of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming, as well as the U.S. Department of the Interior secretary, in October.

The idea is to lease or purchase some 10,000 acres of land and use water from federal reservoirs in Wyoming and Nebraska's Lake McConaughey, as well as some from Colorado, to replenish the river's flows in a stretch of the Platte near Kearney, Neb.

The flows in that region have been sharply depleted during the past 60 years, thanks in part to heavy urban and agricultural water use in Colorado.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, spring runoffs from the South and North Platte rivers generated bountiful flushing flows that shaped nesting areas and cleared vegetation from the central Platte River's banks, creating rich, sandy habitat for birds.

The runoff also created a safe resting place for whooping cranes as they made their long migration from Central America to Canada.

"Now almost all of that runoff is captured and stored (high up in the South and North Platte rivers)," said Dan Luecke, an environmental consultant who has helped negotiate the agreement. Critical spring flows beyond the confluence of the North and South Platte rivers have been cut by more than half.

Experts say the Platte River recovery effort is one of the most complex and expensive such undertakings ever attempted and it comes after nearly 12 years of strife-ridden negotiations between water utilities, state water officials, environmental groups and federal agencies.

"It's certainly more complex than the Upper Colorado (recovery program) because the South Platte River is overappropriated," Luecke said, referring to the fact that most of its flows are already spoken for.

The first phase of the recovery effort, 13 years long, is valued at roughly $300 million, including in-kind contributions of water and land. The federal government is slated to pay about $160 million in cash, and the states are paying about $30 million.

The states' contributions break down like this: Water-strapped Colorado is putting in $24 million in cash and about 10,000 acre-feet of water; Wyoming is contributing $6 million in cash and about 25,000 acre-feet of water; and Nebraska is providing about 100,000 acre-feet of water and land.

Finding the cash will require new legislation at the state and federal levels, according to Ted Kowalski, a staffer at the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

The board, if Colorado lawmakers approve, plans to tap the state's Species Conservation Trust Fund for most of the money, including $5 million this year to start buying land.

If Colorado's state coffers can't cover the full $24 million, cities will have to contribute as well.

"Cities will likely have to pay something," Kowalski said. "The question is how much. Up until now they've gotten a pass on numerous issues under the Endangered Species Act because the federal government knew this plan was coming. This is important to them."

smithj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5474