Platte River Cooperative Agreement

[Chen rossii]

Read this today and thought that I would share, I bet the gov. says NO, what do you think. He says he will make a decision before the election. It will be a political decision for sure.

NRD tells governor: Say 'no'
Central Platte district unveils economic study showing harm to irrigators if Platte River agreement is signed


By Robert Pore

Implementation of the proposed Platte River Cooperative Agreement could take as much as 500,000 irrigated acres out of production at a possible economic impact of $700 million.
That was one of a number of possible scenarios an economic impact analysis, commissioned by the Central Platte Natural Resources District, found concerning Nebraska's signing on to the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program.

The analysis cost the Central Platte NRD $90,000. It took a month to complete the study.

"We thought it was important enough to us," said Ron Bishop, Central Platte NRD manager. "We irrigate half of the land in the Platte Valley. Groundwater is a major input to the economic well-being to our natural resource district."

He said the NRD asked the state to commission such a study last summer, but the state failed to do so.

The release of the report comes when Gov. Dave Heineman is planning to announce before the Nov. 7 election whether he will sign the cooperative agreement.

Bishop said the NRD commissioned the report to provide Heineman an indication of what the cost to Nebraska's economy would be if the state enters or doesn't enter the cooperative agreement.

The agreement is a pact between Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado and the U.S. Department of Interior to pursue a basinwide effort to improve and maintain habitat for four threatened and endangered species that use the Platte River in Central Nebraska.

The recovery program was developed as a way to help surface water users continue to take water directly from the Platte River without violating the federal Endangered Species Act. The protected species are the whooping crane, interior least tern, piping plover and pallid sturgeon.

"It is obvious from the report that if you look at what the long-term demands are of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in order to meet those demands it is going to have a major impact on irrigated agriculture all up and down the Platte River Valley," Bishop said.

In order to protect those protected species, the recovery program calls for restricting the use of groundwater that is hydrologically connected to the Platte River, Bishop said.

Highlights of the analysis include:


Beneficiaries -- The primary beneficiaries of the program are those water users who divert directly from the Platte River, including the Panhandle irrigation districts, Central Platte Public Power & Irrigation District and NPPD.
Those water users can expect beneficial impacts from the program of about $247,000,000 over the course of the first 13 years of the program.

Much of those benefits come in the form of direct cost savings to the irrigation and power districts by avoiding endangered species act consultations.


Negative Impacts -- Groundwater users will suffer the greatest negative consequences arising from the program. To provide benefits to the surface water users, negative impacts to the state and to groundwater users resulting from the program will total $261,000,000 by the year 2020. The costs are directly associated with offsetting any post-1997 depletions to Platte River flows.

Impact if not signed -- If LB962 is implemented, it appears that the economic consequences of not signing would be far greater than that of signing for the first increment of the program.
Negative impacts to the state and to groundwater users if the program is not entered into but LB962 is enforced, totals $173,000,000 during the first 10 years. Additional economic impacts may be incurred after that if further water use restrictions are imposed as allowed under LB962.


Impact if signed -- If subsequent increments of the program are implemented, it appears that the economic consequences of not signing would be far less than that of signing.
If the program is signed and later incorporates subsequent increments, the economic impact to the state of Nebraska are estimated to be an additional $296 million for a total of $557 million. The total economic impacts associated with the program for subsequent increments ranges from $470,000,000 to $730,000,000 by the year 2056 based upon existing program objectives.

Bishop said the analysis does not specify the amount of annual state general funds needed by the DNR to implement the program, nor does it specify the property tax implications for NRDs.

He said state Department of Natural Resources officials previously told the NRDs that it would offset any post-1997 depletions to Platte River flows as required by the program.

"It is unfortunate Nebraska didn't conduct this analysis sooner, but we were able to have a good work product completed in time to help the governor in his deliberations," Bishop said.

The analysis was unveiled at Thursday's Central Platte NRD board meeting. Last month, NRD board members voted to oppose Heineman's signing the cooperative agreement.

On Thursday the board voted to send a letter to Heineman reiterating the board's opposition to Nebraska's entering into the cooperative agreement. Heineman also received a copy of the analysis on Thursday.

While the study showed signing the agreement would not have the economic consequences compared to not signing during the first increment of the program, board member Ladd Reeves said the board did not know what the results of the analysis would be when it commissioned the study.

"But it was something the public had to know," he said.

Board member Carroll Sheldon of Kearney said signing the agreement would have "far-reaching consequences on Nebraska's economy."

"The cost of this agreement is a concern to our farmers," Sheldon said.

Board member Marvion Reichert of Elm Creek said having to give up water to protect four threatened and endangered species shouldn't be just on the backs of farmers.

"It's a shared sacrifice," he said. "Why should a few bear the burden of the many?"

Bishop said about 2 million acres are irrigated in the Platte River Valley. The Central Platte NRD has 1 million acres of irrigated land.

That could mean that 170,000 to 250,000 acres in the Central Platte NRD would be forced to revert to dryland agriculture, though Bishop said a huge chunk of the land would be taken out of irrigated production from North Platte to Kearney to increase the river flows for endangered or threatened migratory birds.

"This could hit Lincoln, Keith and Dawson counties very hard," Bishop said. "This could be devastating to the economies of a lot of our small towns."

Last week, Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning ruled that Heineman could opt out of the cooperative agreement if he found it detrimental to Nebraska.

"We hope that the governor takes all of this study into consideration before he makes the determination to sign or not," Bishop said. "But if he does sign, we certainly want him to be fully aware of the tremendous negative impact going into any increments beyond this first will have on the state."

[Storm]

Big Business will trump every single time unless people hit the voting booths ...

[Chen rossii]

JUST IN
GOV SIGNS AGREEMENT
NATE JENKINS
Associated Press Writer
LINCOLN, Neb. — Gov. Dave Heineman Friday signed a three-state agreement that could improve and protect one of Nebraska's most vital resources, the Platte River, but that groundwater irrigators say might eventually cripple portions of the rural economy.

"It provides regulatory certainty; it protects our state's farmers and ranchers from potential federal actions that could be detrimental," Heineman said about his decision to sign the Platte River Cooperative Agreement. He said he possible spent more time on the issue than any other since becoming governor.

"This is a difficult decision," he said. "There's no question the state is divided."

Besides Nebraska, the cooperative agreement includes Wyoming, Colorado and the U.S. Department of Interior. Colorado Gov. Bill Owens signed the agreement Friday and Wyoming is expected to sign.

The river recovery plan called for in the agreement includes acquiring land for wildlife habitat in Nebraska and increasing river flows at key times. It will cost about $317 million, with $157 million coming from the Interior Department and the rest from the three states in cash, land and water. Federal dollars have not yet received final approval.

The plan is designed to help guide Platte River Basin entities in complying with the Endangered Species Act while retaining their access to federal water, land or funding. The goal is to improve the Platte River and protect habitat for the whooping crane, piping plover, interior least tern and pallid sturgeon.

"This is the way we should do business in Nebraska: do it in a collaborative manner and try to tackle a problem that does right by the river but with people in mind," said Chad Smith, a member of the governor's Water Policy Task Force and director of the Nebraska office of American Rivers.

Reservoirs in Wyoming and the booming populations on the front range of Colorado are starved for Platte River water, along with Nebraska irrigators.

Surface water irrigators will be helped by more certain allotments of water and aid in complying with the Endangered Species Act, Smith said. He conceded that the agreement "will be tough for groundwater irrigators to deal with," as it comes on top of a new water law in the state that can limit irrigation.

Under the state's relatively new water law (LB962), much of the Platte River basin has already been declared fully or overappropriated for irrigation.

"It's certainly a major change," Ron Bishop, manager of the Central Platte Natural Resources District, said of the agreement. "We start drying up major areas of irrigated land. The irrigation economy is the backbone of the central and western Platte Basin."

"For communities up and down the river, they will have an (unrecoverable) cost. It will be lost," Bishop said.

Some farm groups have endorsed the plan, though begrudgingly. The Nebraska Farm Bureau has called it "the lesser of several evils." An advisory group recommended Heineman sign the plan.

Heineman's long-awaited announcement comes on the heels of a report commissioned by the Central Platte NRD, whose customers rely heavily on groundwater. It looked at costs the recovery plan would cause by taking land out of production, and the ripple effect that would have on everything from farm-implement dealers and grain elevators to Main Streets and seed-corn sellers. The study found that the financial hit to the state — should the agreement be signed — would actually be about $160 million less than if it were not signed.

But should the state remain in similar agreements after the year 2020, the scales would tip the other way, the study found, costing maybe $137 more and eventually taking a half-million irrigated acres out of production. Should the current plan go into effect, 72,000 of the 2 million irrigated acres in the Platte River basin will be taken out of production over the next 13 years, with the possibility of more, said Bishop. Heineman said the exact number of acres is not yet known.

Heineman can pull the state out of the agreement, if he wants to, according to an opinion from Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning's office. If the other partners act in bad faith, "I will not hesitate to withdraw," Heineman said.

To pay the $317 million cost of the plan, Colorado plans to pitch in $24 million in cash, and Wyoming $6 million in cash. Nebraska doesn't have to pay any cash.

The remaining $130 million for the plan is being contributed with water and land credits: The three states must together contribute 80,000 acre-feet of water, an estimated $120 million value, and Wyoming and Nebraska will contribute about 26,500 acres of land, a $10 million value.

Key components in the plan include providing 10,000 acres of suitable habitat along the river in western and central Nebraska, and increasing river flows by about 130,000 to 150,000 acre-feet of water a year.

An acre-foot of water is enough water to supply one or two families for a year.

[Krzfshrmn]

People just can not get it into their heads that we have been using water at an unsustainable rate. Sooner or late price is going to be paid. The question is do we start paying now when the price in the long run might be cheaper or wait till every thing comes crashing down around our ears?