LINCOLN — Gamblers' money could help build new reservoirs along the central Platte River for the benefit of threatened and endangered species.
Reservoir construction is prominently mentioned by the State Department of Natural Resources in an application seeking $3.3 million from the Nebraska Environmental Trust in 2012.
The department filed the application last week, as required under a heavily debated law that will use a portion of trust funds to help Nebraska comply with a three-state plan to manage the Platte.
It's too soon to say whether the $91 million in reservoir projects will come to fruition. But one of the proposed lakes, near Elm Creek, could provide multiple public uses, such as boating, fishing and flood control. None of the reservoirs would be any larger than 1,000 surface acres, which is about four times the size of Wehrspann Lake in Sarpy County.
Using a competitive grants process, the trust annually distributes about $15 million in state lottery proceeds to environmental projects. But the State Department of Natural Resources has a huge advantage over the field of 92 other grant applicants: a mandate by state lawmakers and the governor to spend $3.3 million in trust funds for each of the next three years on the Platte.
The department's application provides insights into how the state intends to do its part toward restoring a river that has been heavily depleted by decades of agricultural, industrial and municipal demands. Building new reservoirs is just one strategy among several, which include leasing water rights from irrigators and pumping groundwater directly into the river.
Jerry Kenny of Kearney is director of the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program, a coalition created by a 1997 agreement between Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska to restore the river. Because the Platte is critically important for irrigation and supplying drinking water to the state's largest cities, keeping flows in the river benefits more than endangered birds and fish.
"No time is better than now," Kenny said. "Things are not going to get easier and cheaper to do in the future, so let's get after it now."
New reservoirs could help better manage the river by capturing excess flows during high-water years and then releasing the water to provide seasonal increases for the benefit of wildlife habitat.
Two of the reservoirs would be tied in with other lakes and canals in central Nebraska operated by the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District. Last week the district's board of directors approved a resolution to develop an agreement to build those two reservoirs, which would have a combined size of about 1,000 surface acres.
A third, roughly 900-acre reservoir could be built on Elm Creek. The Central Platte Natural Resources District and the Nebraska Public Power District have done a feasibility study on the proposal, although it has been on the back burner in recent months.
The five natural resources districts along the Platte River have pledged a combined $2.2 million in matching funds to go toward the State Department of Natural Resources' 2012 application.
The trust's grants committee will compile a ranking of applications that will be made public in February. The full board will approve grants in April.
Assuming the department's application is approved, the money will be put in the Water Resources Cash Fund, an account created by the Legislature to help solve problems in fully and over-appropriated river basins.
Brian Dunnigan, the department director, said last week that his staff will work with other partners to fund river restoration work that will do the most good. The grant application allows the strongest projects to rise to the surface.
What's certain is that the grant will command intense scrutiny from those who believe the money is being improperly diverted from the trust. Last session they negotiated a compromise that resulted in $3.3 million that would be used every year for three years, down from the initial proposal to use $7 million each year for 11 years.
Part of the compromise sought to use a $3.3 million general fund appropriation as a dollar-for-dollar match to the trust money. While the $3.3 million in general fund money has been put in the Water Resources Cash Fund, it has not been designated as a match.
Scott Smathers of Lincoln, director of the Nebraska Sportsmen's Foundation and a supporter of the Environmental Trust, helped hammer out the compromise. He and others thought the full match money was part of the deal, so he was disappointed to learn that it wasn't included in the State Department of Natural Resources' application.
Still, he and others recognize the importance of restoring the Platte.
"None of us is going to disagree water issues are important," Smathers said. "But the match was a strongly debated issue. The match was important."
The trust money is targeted specifically for the Platte. By keeping the general fund money separate, it can be spent to help restore other depleted river basins, Dunnigan said.
Contact the writer: 402-473-9587, joe.duggan@owh.com
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