LINCOLN — Audubon Nebraska is condemning a decision to deny it and several other parties legal standing to object to an interbasin transfer of water from the Platte River to the Republican Basin.
One Audubon official called the ruling a “dishonor” to a state treasure — the annual migration of tourists to view hundreds of thousands of Sandhill cranes roosting in and around the central Platte River.
The Lower Republican and Tri-Basin natural resources districts have applied to divert 150 cubic feet per second of water from the Platte to a tributary of the Republican River so the water can help Nebraska comply with a compact requirement to deliver flows to Kansas.
Diversion would harm crane sanctuary
But Audubon has objected, saying that reducing flows in the Platte would harm its Rowe Sanctuary and damage habitat used by Sandhill cranes and endangered Whooping Cranes.
(Courtesy of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission)
Also objecting were the North Platte, Central Platte and Lower Loup natural resources districts, the Nebraska and Loup River public power districts, and a Cozad ditch irrigation district. They worry that lower flows in the Platte River would damage power generation and other users of the water.
But on Dec. 12, Tom Riley, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, ruled that the objectors had not proven that such an interbasin transfer would harm them, and that merely speculating about potential damage wasn’t enough.
30-page ruling
Riley, in a 30-page ruling made 17 months after a hearing on the issue, said that the interbasin transfer would not impact so-called “target” flows already designated for wildlife because it only targets excess, unappropriated flows from the Platte.
Thus, he dismissed the objections, and ruled that Audubon and the other objectors would not be granted legal “standing” to argue against the water transfer when it finally gets to a hearing before the DNR.
Officials with Audubon and the other objectors said this week that they are considering whether to appeal the ruling. That could delay a hearing on whether to grant the interbasin transfer.
Such an interbasin transfer — diverting water from one river drainage to another — would be a first for Nebraska.
‘One overused river to another’
And an official with Audubon Nebraska said it would result in diverting water from “one overused river to another,” while failing to provide long-term benefits to either basin.
Melissa Mosier, Audubon Nebraska’s Platte River program manager, said that such a diversion would damage wildlife habitat developed by the organization for the hundreds of thousands of cranes that visit central Nebraska each spring.
“This decision is a dishonor to one of Nebraska’s natural gems and a huge driver of ecotourism in the state,” Mosier said.
$14.3 million impact of cranes
A 2017 report estimated the annual economic impact to central Nebraska by crane watching was $14.3 million, and that it sustained more than 180 full-time jobs.
Mosier said the proposed diversion would also strain water resources that communities, power companies and irrigators along the Platte rely on.
But an official with the Lower Republican Natural Resources District, one of the two NRDs seeking the interbasin transfer, said that such transfers, while new to Nebraska, aren’t uncommon in states like Colorado.
Nick Simonson, assistant general manager of the Lower Republican NRD, said the right to transfer water from the Platte, if granted, would always be junior to other water rights on the river, so it’s hard to say how it would harm others. And getting more water into the Republican River would help Nebraska comply with its compact obligations with Kansas in dry years, he said.
Need to harness water
“We have way more water going out of the state than coming in,” Simonson said. “We need to harness that water for the good of the state.”
But Mosier said that any excess flows in the Platte are beneficial, by sustaining habitat along the river and recharging aquifers.
More than 70% of the historic flows of the Platte are diverted before they reach central Nebraska, she said, which has meant that target flows for endangered species are falling short.
Mosier said that granting such an interbasin diversion of water from the Platte would be “a giant step backward” after decades of work with the federal government, Colorado, and Wyoming to restore flows to the Platte River.
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