Study: Lower water in Niobrara would hurt economy

Regional News

NIOBRARA, Neb. (AP) -- A new study says ensuring the Niobrara River maintains its current flow is important because boating and tubing boosts the economy in north-central Nebraska.

The study by University of Nebraska at Omaha economics professor Steve Shultz estimates cutting water flow on the Niobrara would cost the local economy between $471,000 and $695,000 a year over the next decade.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission wanted the study because it's considering efforts to protect flows in a 76-mile stretch of the Niobrara.

Many farmers and ranchers in the area are wary of such plans. They say overprotection would hinder future development. And they say the river's water rights already have been assigned.

Congress designated the Niobrara corridor a national scenic river in 1991. The corridor encompasses more than 20,000 acres of private and public lands, including portions of Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, Smith Falls State Park and the Nature Conservancy's Niobrara Valley Preserve.

The river provides habitat for several threatened species, including piping plovers, least terns and whooping cranes.

Concern that overuse of Niobrara River water for irrigation could threaten its ecosystem or its recreation offerings landed the 535-mile-long waterway a spot on a list of endangered rivers in 2008.

The Washington-based nonprofit American Rivers said the Niobrara was among the 10 U.S. rivers are most in peril because of severe water shortages and other problems.

The Niobrara runs from Wyoming through the Nebraska Sandhills to join the Missouri River at the town of Niobrara in north-central Nebraska's Knox County.

The Nebraska Environmental Trust is paying for Shultz's study.

Among his findings:

- Last year, floaters spent an average of $234 each day in getting to and floating on the Niobrara.

- At least 32 percent of Nebraskans are familiar with the river, 15 percent have floated on it, 23 percent have engaged in recreational activities there and 40 percent have friends or family who have.

- In 2008, the National Park Service says, about 45,500 people floated the officially scenic stretch of the river downstream from Valentine.

On Monday, at a University of Nebraska-Lincoln meeting on the report, Shultz said there's nothing in Nebraska that compares with the Niobrara.

"There is no substitute for the Niobrara as it currently is," he said.

Shultz said his findings won't solve the debate over use of the Niobrara's water, but his study was designed to be updated with more data in the future.

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On the Net:

Study site: http://unorealestate.org/