KEARNEY, Neb.—The new executive director of the Platte River Recovery and Implementation Program relishes the challenges ahead.
Jerry Kenny first must implement the plan to protect the habitat of endangered and threatened birds and fish. The job is a big one.
“Not to be overly dramatic,” he said, “but it seemed to be the culmination of everything my personal and professional life had been leading to.”
The governors of Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming signed the Platte River Cooperative Agreement, designed to benefit the threatened and endangered species and provide water users in the Platte River Basin with coverage under the Endangered Species Act without giving up their access to federal water, land or funding.
To cover the plan’s $317 million cost, the federal government will pay $157 million in cash. Colorado plans to pitch in $24 million in cash, and Wyoming $6 million in cash. Nebraska doesn’t have to pay any cash, but could—because of a substantial increase in irrigated acres since July 1, 1997—end up having to take thousands of irrigated acres out of production.
The remaining $130 million is being contributed through water and land credits: The three states must together contribute 80,000 acre-feet of water at an agreed upon value of $120 million. Nebraska’s share of that water contribution will come through releases of the water in the already existing “environmental account” in Lake McConaughy.
Wyoming and Nebraska also will contribute about 3,000 acres of land, a $10 million value.
If the program continues after 13 years, a total of 29,000 acres will be needed to fully accomplish the objectives of the program, but that acreage goal could change as the science is improved.
The Platte River in central Nebraska is a major stop for migrating whooping cranes and home to the piping plover, least tern and pallid sturgeon. They’re all considered threatened or endangered species.
The Platte’s two branches start in the Colorado mountains, flow through Wyoming and Colorado, and merge in Nebraska. With its 15 major dams and reservoirs, the river supplies water to about 3.5 million people, irrigates farms, generates electricity through hydropower plants and provides recreation and wildlife habitat.
A key part of his job, Kenny said, is getting Nebraska landowners to understand that no one has authority to use eminent domain to meet habitat goals.
“It’s not a federal program,” he said. “It’s a collaborative program. What we hope to do on the Platte River recovery could serve as a great example on how to do it right elsewhere.”
Will the goals over the first 13 years be met?
“I think most of it,” he said. “If we don’t get it all done, we’ll have some explaining to do. I think they are ambitious but realistic goals.”
Kenny earned his bachelor’s in civil engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
His first job out of college was with Engineering Consultants Inc., a Denver-based firm formed by federal Bureau of Reclamation retirees.
Later, when his wife entered graduate school in psychology at Washington State University in Pullman, he began graduate studies, too, and did research on soil and water mechanics for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
After returning to Denver, where his wife, Bridgett, was interning for her degree, Kenny joined another engineering company and eventually finished his doctorate work from WSU.
After a decade with that company, he joined Failure Analysis Group in Boulder, Colo. It was later renamed Exponent.
Failure Analysis provided engineering analysis after events such as airplane crashes, explosions and floods.
In 2001 he joined the Denver office of Omaha-based HDR, then moved on to the Platte job this past June.
He’s in charge of the Platte plan, but Kenny’s equally acquainted with the Republican River basin and the challenges along its path through Nebraska into Kansas.
Kenny and his sister own 80 acres on the south side of the Republican River, bought by their dad when he went to the area to work on the Harlan County dam.
Kenny said he grew up on the banks of the Republican and knows how much water means.
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Information from: Kearney Hub,
