STUDYING NEBRASKA'S LIQUID LABYRINTH
A diverse team of journalists embarks upon a detailed study of the Platte River.
CAROLYN JOHNSEN
Travelers crossing Nebraska by plane may see the Platte River's intertwining channels stretch like a lifeline across the broad palm of the state.
This braided prairie river has always been central to life in this portion of the Great Plains. Pawnee Indians farmed rich bottomlands near the river. Wagon trains carried European settlers west along the Platte corridor. Some stayed to put down roots in Nebraska.
Today, their descendants generate electricity with water from the Platte. By diverting its water to irrigate crops and by sinking thousands of irrigation wells in the Platte basin, farmers have made Nebraska second only to California in the number of irrigated acres of cropground. Seventy percent of Nebraskans draw their drinking water from the river's alluvial aquifer.
The Platte River supports wildlife as well. About 300 species of migratory birds use habitat along the Platte. Three threatened or endangered bird species and one endangered species of fish rely upon the river.
In the winter of 2004-2005, three states and the federal government were trying to resolve their conflicts over uses of the river, and Nebraskans were seeking a formula for fairly distributing the water of the Platte and its related aquifers. Five years of drought had only intensified the competition for water.
Early in 2005 - with water issues making daily headlines and newscasts across Nebraska - the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Lincoln Journal Star began collaborating to report on the Platte River. This unique project involved 19 students from the college's science-writing, graphics, editing and photography classes, as well as reporters, artists and a photographer from the Journal Star.
Journal Star reporters covered water policy, while the students focused most of their work on science related to the Platte. About evenly divided between majors in science and journalism, the students learned about Platte River issues as they reported and wrote their stories.
The team interviewed dozens of farmers, scientists and local, state and federal officials. Students watched the great spectacle of spring migration in the central Platte valley, walked through irrigated corn with farmers and sat through a session of the Nebraska Supreme Court as it considered a landmark case centered on the Platte.
Two dozen stories published over a year's time in the Journal Star informed and educated readers about efforts to manage and protect water in the Platte River basin.
This report collects and updates those stories and supplements them with vivid photography and graphics. It describes the resources of the basin and explores how the people and the wildlife who live there have used them. It explains the history and nature of conflicts over those resources and examines the troubled collaboration among science, policy and law in efforts to resolve those conflicts.
This report will provide a lasting resource to help readers see the Platte River as more than an attractive feature in the landscape and in much more detail than is possible from the air or from an Interstate 80 bridge. "Platte River Odyssey" will provide solid background for a dynamic story that will continue to develop even after the drought is over.
