Platte River Endangered Species Partnership(PRESP)

PROPOSED PLATTE RIVER RECOVERY

IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM

APPENDIX A, WATER COMPONENT

TAB 2A

WYOMING'S PATHFINDER MODIFICATION PROJECT

PROPOSED PLATTE RIVER RECOVERY IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM

APPENDIX A, WATER COMPONENT

TAB 2A

WYOMING'S PATHFINDER MODIFICATION PROJECT

I. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

A. The Pathfinder Modification Project would increase the capacity of the existing Pathfinder Reservoir by approximately 54,000 acre-feet to recapture storage space lost to sediment. The modification would be accomplished by raising the elevation of the existing spillway by approximately 2.39 feet with the installation of an inflatable dam or some other means. The recaptured storage space would store water under the existing 1904 storage right for Pathfinder Reservoir and would enjoy the same entitlements as other uses in the reservoir with the exception that the recaptured storage space could not place regulatory calls on existing water rights upstream of Pathfinder Reservoir other than the rights pertaining to Seminoe Reservoir.

B. Approximately 34,000 acre-feet of the proposed 54,000 acre-foot modification would be accounted for in an environmental account and operated for the benefit of endangered species and habitat in Central Nebraska.

1. Water would accrue to the environmental account on an equal priority with other reservoir uses. The 34,000 acre- foot account is approximately 3.18% (34,000/1,070,000) of the active capacity of Pathfinder Reservoir. Therefore, the account would accrue 3.18% of the inflow that is storable under the 1904 storage right.

2. The environmental account could not contain more than 34,000 acre-feet at any one time and will be administered under Wyoming water law. For example, if at the end of a water year, which is defined as October 1 to September 30, 10,000 acre-feet of water was in the account, the account could only accrue 24,000 acre-feet under its priority fill during the forthcoming water year.

3. The environmental account would be assessed its proportionate share of evaporation losses based on the storage water in the account.

4. The environmental account would be operated, under contract with the Bureau of Reclamation, by the same manager that would manage the environmental account in Lake McConaughy, in a manner consistent with Wyoming water law and the North Platte Decree.

C. The State of Wyoming would retain, under contract with the Bureau of Reclamation, the remaining 20,000 acre-feet of the modification capacity to provide municipal water to North Platte communities in Wyoming through contracts between the municipalities and the State of Wyoming.

1. Water would accrue to the municipal account on an equal priority with other reservoir uses. The 20,000 acre-foot account is 1.87% (20,000/1,070,000) of the active capacity of Pathfinder Reservoir. Therefore, the account would accrue 1.87% of the inflow that is storable under the 1904 storage right.

2. The municipal account could not contain more than 20,000 acre-feet at any one time and will be administered under Wyoming water law. For example, if at the end of a water year, which is defined as October 1 to September 30, 5,000 acre-feet of water were in the account, the account could only accrue 15,000 acre-feet under its priority fill during the forthcoming water year.

3. The municipal account would be assessed its proportionate share of evaporation losses based on the storage water in the account.

4. The storage water would be used to supplement Wyoming municipalities' water rights. If the surface or hydrologically connected ground water rights of a municipality, or a portion thereof, are regulated due to a priority call, that community, subject to state law, could continue to divert to meet its municipal demands and its depletions would be replaced from its contracted portion of the municipal account subject to the following conditions:

a. The municipality must have the capabilities of measuring its diversions and its return flows in a manner approved by the Wyoming State Engineer in order to accurately measure the resulting depletions. If the return flows cannot be measured in a manner acceptable to the Wyoming State Engineer, the entire amount diverted will be considered a depletion and will be debited from the respective municipalities' account.

b. Contracts for water from the Pathfinder Modification Project with the State of Wyoming will stipulate that the contracting municipality can only serve new individual demands less than 100 acre-feet of water per year.

c. If the City of Casper contracts for water in the municipal account, water in its portion of the account must be depleted before it can exercise its contract for water from Seminoe Reservoir. This condition serves to alleviate project impacts on Seminoe Reservoir.

5. The Bureau of Reclamation, under contract with the State of Wyoming, will operate the 20,000 acre-foot municipal storage account to insure an annual estimated firm yield of 9,600 acre-feet. In any year that the municipal demand is less than 9,600 acre-feet, the remaining balance of the annual firm yield may be contributed by Wyoming for release to the benefit of the endangered species and the critical habitat in Central Nebraska. Any such water contributed must be released from storage before the end of the water year. Such contributions are secondary to the purpose of providing municipal water to North Platte communities in Wyoming and do not constitute a permanent right.

D. Reactivation of the storage will affect the users and contractors for water from Glendo, Pathfinder and Seminoe Reservoirs in Wyoming. Therefore, in order to address these effects, Wyoming has agreed to pay the Wyoming and Nebraska federal storage water contractors' share of the Safety of Dams Modifications to the federal reservoirs to be implemented by the Bureau of Reclamation in the near future. In addition, as Seminoe Reservoir is the project most affected by the enlargement, Wyoming has also agreed to assist the Casper Alcova Irrigation District, the federal contractor for Seminoe water, with the resolution of existing selenium issues that are impacting its existing operation.

E. Existing Wyoming and Nebraska federal storage water contractors will not be held responsible for costs assigned to the Pathfinder Modification Project.

F. The storage and delivery of water for environmental purposes would serve as a Wyoming contribution to the water component of the Program on behalf of Wyoming's existing water users, including the federal storage water contractors located in Wyoming and Nebraska to the extent the activities of such contractors are related to the delivery of storage water from the federal reservoirs in Wyoming.

G. Subject to the appropriate approvals and conveyance losses, Wyoming, in accordance with its water law, will assure delivery of the storage water from the Pathfinder Modification Project herein designated for downstream environmental purposes to the Wyoming/Nebraska state line. A permit will be secured under Nebraska water law by the contractor for the environmental account to conduct the quantities of water thus delivered at the state line, subject to appropriate conveyance losses, to specified locations between the state line and Chapman, Nebraska. The environmental releases will begin subsequent to the completion of the project and issuance of the permits by Nebraska. Beyond the state line, Nebraska will assure delivery of the water in accordance with the terms of any such permit granted and with other applicable Nebraska law.

H. Upon completion of the construction of the Pathfinder Modification Project, Wyoming will release the section 404 permit and the water rights for the Deer Creek Project, a proposed and permitted reservoir with a capacity of approximately 66,000 acre-feet. Further, Wyoming would provide, at no cost, fee simple title to the 470 acres of habitat it owns in the critical habitat area in Central Nebraska to the FWS or other entities as deemed appropriate by the FWS. Nothing herein is intended to affect the agreement, dated November 3, 1988, between the FWS, Department of the Interior, and the Wyoming Water Development Commission.

II. PROJECT STATUS

The project concept was brought to the Wyoming Water Development Commission ("WWDC") by the Goshen Irrigation District in the fall/winter of 1994. The concept was discussed and expanded in meetings with other North Platte federal contractors and state officials. In June 1995, the WWDC contracted with the Bureau of Reclamation to perform a preliminary technical review of the proposal. The effort was jointly funded with each entity providing $37,000. The resulting report entitled, "Draft, North Platte River Basin Initiative" was completed in October 1995. The report provided technical and hydrologic information and concluded that the project was technically feasible.

During the 1996 Legislative Session, based on the recommendation of the WWDC, the Wyoming Legislature amended the statutes authorizing and funding the Deer Creek Project to include the following spending authorization to the WWDC: "Upon review by the select water committee and approval of the governor, the commission may use not to exceed one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) of the project appropriation to pursue alternatives to the project which provide equivalent municipal water supply benefits, assist the Casper Alcova Irrigation District in the resolution of selenium issues, assist the federal contractors of North Platte storage in the resolution of safety of dam issues, and seek long term solutions to endangered species issues in the Platte River basin." In June 1996, the necessary approvals were secured from the Governor and the Wyoming Legislature's Select Water Committee for the WWDC to utilize up to $400,000 for the following purposes:

A. The WWDC contracted with the Bureau of Reclamation to provide a detailed evaluation of the social, economic and environmental effects of the project. This effort will be performed at a level of detail which could be used as part of a NEPA document. However, the study will not evaluate the project relative to other alternatives, and the report will not constitute a NEPA document. However, it is anticipated that the findings of the study will be incorporated into a NEPA compliance document at a future date. The contract amount is $165,000. The study will be completed in January 1998.

B. The WWDC contracted with the Casper Alcova Irrigation District to retain the professional services necessary to develop detailed designs and cost estimates for the facilities necessary to implement selenium remediation. The contract amount is $140,000. The work will be phased and completed in December 1999.

III. FUTURE WORK ITEMS

A. Technical Tasks. The following work items will be completed during the term of the Cooperative Agreement.

1. The detailed designs for the selenium remediation must be completed. This work is presently underway.

2. The Bureau must finalize the plans and cost estimates for the safety of dam modifications. The schedule for this work should be established so the appropriate state funding can be arranged accordingly.

3. The plans and specifications for the modifications to the emergency spillway at Pathfinder Dam must be developed and construction cost estimates must be finalized.

4. A contract between the State of Wyoming and the Bureau of Reclamation relative to the operation of the municipal account must be completed. A contract between the State of Wyoming, the Governance Committee and the Bureau of Reclamation relative to the operation of the environmental account must be drafted, with final approval depending on an approved Program.

B. NEPA/ESA Review/Federal Permitting. Presently, it is anticipated that the NEPA/ESA review of the Proposed Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (Proposed Alternative) will include the necessary NEPA/ESA review for the project in sufficient detail to secure the necessary federal approvals to implement the project. As a Clean Water Act section 404 permit will be required, the input of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be needed.

C. Protection of Project Water. The following work items will be initiated, in sequence, immediately after the federal section 404 permit is issued and a Program has been approved by the DOI and the three states. While every effort will be made to complete this work as soon as possible, it will likely take two years to secure the following clearances.

1. The federal authorization of Pathfinder Reservoir will be amended, if necessary, to include municipal and environmental purposes. These purposes must be institutionally recognized in order to achieve parity with the agricultural water supply and power production. This issue must be resolved in a manner that meets the federal requirements and will provide the certainty the Proposed Program and the State of Wyoming need to pursue the project.

2. The 1904 Wyoming water right for Pathfinder Reservoir must undergo a partial change of use under Wyoming water law to allow the uses of the environmental and municipal accounts contemplated by the project. The Wyoming Board of Control must authorize the partial change of use. The Board of Control will require technical and hydrologic information in its decision making process. The change of use is necessary to capture the water and to allow the Wyoming State Engineer to protect the water released from the environmental and municipal storage accounts from other appropriators.

3. In order to provide institutional certainty that the project's environmental releases can be protected and will reach the Wyoming/Nebraska state line, an export of water is necessary. In order to achieve an approved export, the Wyoming State Engineer must make recommendations to the Wyoming Legislature and the Wyoming Legislature must approve the export. A permit under Nebraska water law is needed to conduct the quantities of water delivered to the state line to specified locations between the state line and Chapman, Nebraska.

4. Procedures must be developed through the Program's Environmental Account Manager and the Governance Committee involving representatives of the Bureau of Reclamation, Wyoming, Nebraska, and the Nebraska Districts to coordinate operations with those of the Nebraska Environmental Account.

D. Project Construction/Implementation. Project construction should be completed in one year. The project accounts would hopefully fill the following spring and water should be available for project/program purposed during the summer/fall.

IV. MILESTONES PERTAINING TO THE PATHFINDER MODIFICATION PROJECT

A. Year 1. Initiate the following activities in sequence:

1. Seek amendment to the federal authorization of Pathfinder Reservoir to include municipal and environmental purposes, if necessary.

2. Seek a partial change of use for the water right for Pathfinder Reservoir under Wyoming water law to allow the uses of the environmental and municipal accounts contemplated by the project.

3. Seek approval from the Wyoming Legislature for the export of water for downstream environmental uses and seek a permit under Nebraska water law to conduct project environmental releases delivered to the state line to specified locations between the state line and Chapman, Nebraska. Deliveries of water would be subject to appropriate conveyance losses in both states.

B. Year 2. Secure the permits/clearances sought in Year 1.

C. Year 3. Initiate and complete project construction.

D. Year 4. Begin the storage and release of project water.

For further information about the Partnership, contact any Governance Committee member.
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