| OCR Text |
Show NORTH PLATTE RIVER LITIGATION 729 We have mentioned the Interstate, Ft. Laramie, and Northport canals which are part of the North Platte Project, the first two of which take out at the Whalen diversion dam. About a mile east of the Wyoming-Nebraska line is the Tri-State Dam. Just above that dam in Nebraska are the headgates of three large Nebraska canals- Tri-State, Gering, and Northport. Water for the Northport is di- verted through the Tri-State headgate, Northport physically being an extension of the Tri-State canal. Another Nebraska canal is the Ramshorn which also receives its supply through Tri-State. Just above the State line is the headgate of the Mitchell canal serving Nebraska land. While these five canals are commonly referred to as the Nebraska State Line Canals, this opinion generally uses the term as excluding Northport which, as we have said, is a North Platte Proj- ect canal. There are also nine Wyoming private canals diverting below Whalen. One of these, French canal, serves lands in both Wyoming and Nebraska. The section of the river from Whalen to the Tri-State Dam is the pivotal section of the entire river. In this short stretch of 40-odd miles is concentrated a demand for water as great as in the entire preceding 415 miles apart from the Kendrick project to which we will refer. We will return to a consideration of the problems of this pivotal section shortly. The North Platte Project has greatly increased the water resources of the river available for irrigation. Unused and wasted water are stored and held over from one season to another. Moreover, the stor- age water has affected the water tables through saturation of the sub- soil. This has increased the return flows available for rediversion and irrigation. The Special Master found that due largely to the influence of the North Platte Project and the application of storage water to lands in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska the return flows increased from a negligible quantity in 1911 to 700,000 acre feet in 1927. While that amount sharply declined during the drought beginning in 1931, it still is substantial. Thus from 1931-1936 it amounted to 54,300 acre feet in the Whalen-Tri-State Dam section. And as we have already said, the great and disproportionate increase in acreage irrigated in Nebraska since 1910 as compared with the increase in Colorado and Wyoming is largely attributable to the North Platte Project. While the North Platte Project has increased the water resources, it has complicated the: problem of water administration in Wyoming and Nebraska. It has necessitated a segregation of stor- age and natural flow. The storage plants and diversion works are in Wyoming, although much of the beneficial use is in Nebraska. Ap- propriators in Nebraska are dependent on regulation and control in Wyoming. There is a second large federal irrigation project in Wyoming known as the Kendrick project, the estimated cost of which is over $19,000,000. Its primary purpose is the irrigation of some 66,000 acres north and west of Casper, Wyoming. The first unit, capable of serving 35-,000 acres, was completed in 1940. Due to the lack of water supply it has not yet been put into operation. The second unit is under construction. Tlie storage facilities are completed. They con- sist of two channel reservoirs-'the Seminoe, thirty miles above Path- 94-497-69------47 |
