2.6.06
Dividing the Platte
by Olga Pierce, Lincoln Journal StarWater rights on the Platte River used to be as straightforward as the main streets of towns that depended on it. Whoever owned the land could use the water beneath it. Seniority rights governed those who drew water from the river. Now the boundaries of those rights have come together, and Nebraska has reached a turning point.
There is not enough river to go around, and difficult decisions must be made about what fraction of the available water will go to each claim.
Irrigating farmers compete with hunting and fishing outfitters, conservationists, power plants and thirsty cities. And advocates, courts, lawmakers, farmers and planners are discussing the future of this natural resource.
That discussion could involve placing a price on the Platte.
The way to measure the value of a resource is to determine the value of each possible use, said David Bjornstad, an economist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee who specializes in putting price tags on natural resources.
"When you look at a natural resource like a river, its value is really equal to people's willingness to pay for its alternative uses," he said.
Rivers traditionally have been used to provide drinking water, generate electricity and irrigate crops. Increasingly, he said, a river's value includes its recreation and aesthetics.
But which use in Nebraska is the most valuable?
We wouldn't have crops,
In 2002, the 26 counties that border or straddle the Platte sold $3.7 billion in crops, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
That's 38 percent of the value of Nebraska's total crop production that year.
The availability of water can make or break crops in the Platte River basin, said Dennis Strauch, general manager of the Pathfinder Irrigation District in western Nebraska.
"We get 14 inches of precipitation a year. Most crops need 22 inches of water," he said. "Without irrigation, we couldn't have production. We wouldn't have crops."
In 1926, landowners in the district struck a deal with the federal government to buy five dams and reservoirs, three supply canals and 550 miles of canals connecting the system to farms in Sioux, Scottsbluff and Morrill counties.
Each year until 1983, landowners paid 1/70th of the project cost " about $70 per acre. Now they own the system and pay about $23 per acre for operating costs and maintenance. The government operates the dams.
When the river is healthy, so is the farming economy. In drought years, the region's lifeblood dries up with the river.
The 2001 season was the last the district could deliver 100 percent of its irrigation commitments. For much of the time since then, farmers have received 50 percent or 60 percent of the expected amount.
Irrigated land in the area is worth about $1,500 per acre. Without water, the value plummets to $200 to $250 per acre.
With the drought, some farmers planted as little as half of their land. Crop insurance companies struck deals to pay them not to farm.
"Otherwise, people probably would've gone broke," Strauch said.
In 2005, increased snow in Colorado enabled the district to deliver 75 percent of its obligations. That, combined with conservation measures, allowed most farmers to plant all of their land.
But district members remain at the mercy of a river with an uncertain future.
Groundwater challenges
Scott Woodman, owner and operator of a 1,000-acre corn and soybean farm near Shelton, has escaped such hardships because he uses groundwater to irrigate.
But keeping his farm afloat is still not easy.
Like others, he is burdened with expenses for labor, seed grain, insurance, rent and taxes. Fuel for irrigation that can cost as much as $60 an acre, and the price is going up all the time.
And irrigation equipment is expensive, too. Woodman recently bought a pivot for $80,000.
"It costs me about $650 an acre just for the machine, he said. "Dad didn't pay that for the farm."
His father and grandfather installed the farm's first irrigation well in 1936; since then, at least the availability of water has been certain.
But the farm,s location near the Platte has placed Woodman at the center of a debate between farmers who irrigate with groundwater and those who use surface water.
Surface-water irrigators claim that over-pumping of groundwater can cause surface water to dry up.
The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources has placed a moratorium on new wells along the Central Platte.
"The state's telling us we're pumping as much as we can pump," said Woodman, who also serves on the board of the Central Platte Natural Resources District. "The more times we use the Platte, the better off we are. It needs to be used before it leaves the state. I don't think we're mismanaging the river."
In January 2005, the state Supreme Court ruled that Spear T Ranch in the Panhandle could sue nearby groundwater users when Pumpkin Creek, a North Platte River tributary that once flowed through the ranch, dried up. Resolution of that lawsuit is unlikely to end the controversy.
Playing in the Platte
A thriving recreation industry on the Platte generates between $70.6 million and $115.8 million per year, according to a 1996 study paid for by the Environmental Protection Agency.
"The value of the river is almost unquantifiable, for those of us who enjoy water fowl hunting on the Platte," said Chad Smith, director of the Nebraska field office of American Rivers.
Hunters buy licenses, pay for gas, hotels and gear and sometimes buy or lease land along the Platte, all contributing to the economies of nearby towns.
But, Smith said, recreation is threatened because the Platte is over-appropriated.
"Without a healthy river system, we won't attract waterfowl populations," he said.
Birds that rely on Platte habitat also keep the Rowe Sanctuary and Iain Nicolson Audubon Center near Kearney open, said former director Paul Tebbel.
Each year, more than 20,000 people visit the 1,250-acre sanctuary to see sandhill cranes and other birds. And they spend about $1 million each year in Kearney on food and lodging.
Traditional water-use allocations should be changed to take the economic importance of recreation into account, he said.
Duane Hovorka, executive director of the Nebraska Wildlife Federation, said waterfowl and all the other species that depend on the Platte are under threat.
"The flow in the Central Platte is now about one-third of what is historically was," he said. "This means that in a typical year, two-thirds of the water needed for habitat is used upstream.
"Biologically, the river habitat and animals can recover," he said. "The main issue is cost."
Taxpayers are footing part of the bill to support habitat on the Platte. For example, the U.S. Ag Department has begun a $158 million program that will offer farmers 10- to 15-year contracts to take land along the Platte out of irrigated use and plant grass. The goal is to conserve 125,000 acre-feet of water, increase the bird population by 25 percent and plant 85,000 acres of grassland.
"Over the 100-year history of putting water to use on irrigated farmland, millions of dollars have been invested, so it's not cheap by any means to try and reverse the process," Hovorka said.
Cities and power
Cities in the Platte River basin also need water " and they're going to need more.
In eastern Nebraska, the populations of Lincoln and Omaha are forecast to experience phenomenal growth.
In the Omaha area, 176,000 (183,454 -- January 1, 2005) customers depend on the Platte. Omaha's Municipal Utility District (correction: Metropolitan Utilities District) can pump 338 (correction:164) million gallons of water daily out of the Platte.
Lincoln gets 90 percent of its water from well fields that draw on the Platte River aquifer.
In September 2004, the Joslyn Castle Institute for Sustainable Communities issued its "Flatwater Metroplex report, outlining the need for planning to control development along the Interstate 80 corridor between Lincoln and Omaha.
By 2025, more than 1 million people are expected to live in the area.
"Unfortunately, most people live where there is the least water. There will be some communities in very dire straits sooner or later," said institute president Cecil Steward.
The report urges planners to consider no-build zones to protect available water resources, including the Platte River.
The river also provides electricity. Lake McConaughy provides water to cool the 1,365 megawatt coal-powered Gerald Gentleman Power station, the state's largest source of electricity.
Five hydropower plants rely on the Platte. Running at their peak, they produce a little more than 138 megawatts of electricity "enough to serve 75,000 customers, equivalent to the cities of Kearney, Grand Island and Aurora."
Nebraska Public Power District representative Jeanne Schieffer says the value of that power is about $20 million in a wet year, when there's plenty of water in the Platte.
A price on the Platte?
Until now, state law and local natural resources districts have allocated Nebraska's water, but the market may soon play a role, said David Aiken, a specialist in agricultural and water law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
In every western state except Nebraska, he said, water rights are bought and sold on the open market.
In parts of Nebraska now closed to new water uses, such a market for water may arise as well.
"In the areas that have been closed, this will affect very much how cities and irrigators go about their business," Aiken said. "People will have to pay another person not to irrigate."
This situation could make things difficult for farmers.
"You would have to make a lot of money irrigating to come out ahead. There won't be a lot of new irrigation," Aiken said.
Around Fort Collins, CO, water rights in the South Platte River basin sell for $1,500 to $3,000 per acre foot, as listed on the watercolorado.com. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons "enough to cover 1 acre of ground 1 foot deep and enough to meet the annual needs of a family of four."
"This whole idea of buying and selling water is going to be pretty big," Aiken said.
For now, the focus is on cooperation and planning.
The Joslyn Castle Institute is assembling a volunteer partnership to plan development between Lincoln and Omaha.
Since 2003, a governor's water policy task force has gathered irrigators, recreation and wildlife advocates, city officials and regulators to develop policy to satisfy the needs for water.
In 1997, the federal government, Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska agreed to cooperate in managing the Platte to meet the needs of endangered and threatened species as well as human needs for water.
Irrigators, conservationists and government officials are members of the Platte River Cooperative Agreement Governing Committee, formed to address water-allocation questions raised by that agreement.
"Collaborating is the future of good river management," committee member Chad Smith said. "Instead of poking each other with sticks and running to court, we're doing things collaboratively. These uses are not mutually exclusive. We are trying to strike a balance."