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12.16.02 M.U.D. plan to expand hits hurdle One day, the fishing and hunting might not be so good. Habitat for a prehistoric endangered fish could be affected. Pollution might spread from a nearby federal environmental cleanup. Farmland could suffer. Property values might drop. Those are among the reasons people along the Saunders-Douglas County line don't want to see the Metropolitan Utilities District expand into their area of the Platte River Valley. "I don't see how any thinking, reasonable person can look at this with all these problems and come to the conclusion that this is an acceptable place," said Grant Porter, deputy Saunders County Attorney. The county is battling M.U.D.'s Platte West expansion, which will include a new well field. The county has threatened to take the utility to court. General Manager Tom Wurtz said the site offers what M.U.D. has an obligation to provide: a reliable supply of clean water at an affordable price. "We didn't hire an attorney to give us that opinion," Wurtz said. "We hired the premier water experts in the nation and asked them to tell us where to go. That's why we went where we did." The site, which straddles the Saunders-Douglas County line, could cause M.U.D. to pay about $11 million in compensation for replacing wetlands, compensating farmers and building wildlife habitat. That's almost double the approximate $6 million in impact from each of five other options for expansion. But it's a fraction of the $300 million cost for the Platte West project. Utility and federal officials say the potential problems are based on worst-case scenarios that may never happen. The utility can vary its pumping, M.U.D. executives say, to minimize harm. "It is not in our best interest to injure existing landowners, because then we have to pay for it," said Wurtz. "We intend to be good neighbors." The area potentially affected is small compared to the metropolitan area,Wurtz said. Under the worst case, productivity could decline on about eight square miles of farmland. That could result in about a $2.4 million drop in property values. That's small comfort to farmer Harold Kolb, who raises corn and soybeans in Saunders County. "Everybody is entitled to water," Kolb said. "You're going to have to share some of it. But I shouldn't have to suffer at Omaha's profit." Landowner Tom Siems, considering legal action against M.U.D., said he sees the utility as an 800-pound gorilla that will come in and do whatever it wants. Siems said the utility should be required to commit ahead of time to how it will compensate landowners. M.U.D. has already done that with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Siems owns a patch of Douglas County land near the well field site where he has several sand-pit lakes that he stocks for fishing. The utility is giving the Fish and Wildlife Service $1 million to compensate for possible damage to habitat for the pallid sturgeon, an endangered fish that dates to before the time of dinosaurs. The Platte River is one of the Missouri River tributaries where the pallid sturgeon is known to exist. The $1 million will be used to improve a backwater area along the Missouri. Game and Parks will receive $125,000 for possible damage to the Two Rivers Recreation Area, where M.U.D. pumping could lower lake levels by as much as five feet. Also, the utility plans to create a wetlands near La Platte to replace wetlands lost along the Platte. Wurtz said those payments to state and federal officials arose out of legal obligations. The utility, he said, can't pay private citizens for damage that may never occur. M.U.D. is planning to bring the new well field on line gradually. The full impact of its pumping may not be known for 15 to 25 years. The utility plans to sink about 40 wells on both sides of the Platte River, with about 60 percent in Saunders County and the remainder in Douglas County. Because the water would come from the aquifer and not directly from the Platte River, most of the impact will be on the aquifer. That's why nearby lakes and wells could drop as the water table drops and why the underground water contamination at a nearby environmental cleanup site could be affected. Since the water is not being taken directly from the Platte River, the river would drop imperceptibly - about .09 to .60 of an inch. This explains why fishing and swimming at lakes at the nearby Two Rivers State Recreation Area could be diminished. The utility already has agreed to install monitoring wells near a contaminated portion of the aquifer that is being cleaned up by the federal government. The pollution comes from a former munitions plant near Mead, and there is a possibility that M.U.D.'s pumping could pull the contaminants farther east. Officials say the contaminated water is not a threat to M.U.D.'s wells because the wells are uphill from the pollution. Click here to go to the top of this page |
The Metropolitan Utilities District plans to expand its peak capacity by almost 40 percent - - with the intent of meeting maximum demand for at least 30 years. Water source: Platte River aquifer. Cost: $300 million to build, $7.3 million a year to operate and maintain. Water rates already have gone up to pay for the plant. How much water? The new plant would be allowed to pump 19 billion gallons a year from the aquifer, enough to fill about 15 square miles with water six feet deep. (Note: 1.42 trillion gallons flow past this site in an average year.) M.U.D. would be allowed to pump up to 104 million gallons on any given day but would be restricted to an annual average of 52 million gallons a day. M.U.D. currently can pump 234 million gallons a day. In 2030, it is expected to need 330 million gallons during the hottest, driest days. When: The plant is expected to take five years to bring on line. M.U.D. would begin work next year. Where: The wells would be placed along the Platte River southeast of Yutan, in both Saunders and Douglas Counties. The water plant would be built at 216th and Q Streets. Who receives M.U.D. water? 176,000 customers in Omaha, Bellevue, Ralston, La Vista, Elkhorn, Bennington, Fort Calhoun and Waterloo. | |||