WSP08458

• File Number: 8282.751
• Description: Colorado River Operations
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 1/1/2002
• Author: USDOI/BOR
• Title: Draft Environmental Impact Statement Vol 1 Implementation Agreement, Inadvertent Overrun and Payback Policy and Related Federal Actions
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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Executive Summary

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initiation of scoping process for the lA, lOP, and implementation of the biological conservation
measures. The scoping cornment period also ended April 10, 2001. Six letters of comment were
received in response to the NO!. Comments addressed a number of issues including the
following:

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. Project description (the need for flexibility to accommodate future shifts in water policy
and consideration of in-stream and other public interest beneficial uses in long-term
water resource planning; the need for detailed descriptions of implementation,
monitoring, and enforcement strategies),

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. EIS content (the geographic scope of the analysis and the need to identify the
relationship of the proposed action to all major proposed and related Federal and State
actions along the lower portion of the Colorado River; specific resources to be analyzed;
the need for a detailed mitigation plan; the need to include sufficient information and
analysis from documents incorporated by reference; the need for an appropriate baseline
and no-action scenario),

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. Expansion of the range of project altema tives,

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. The need for compliance with the Endangered Species Act.

On April 26, 2001, a separate letter was sent to 55 Indian Tribal representatives, initiating
government-to-government coordination pursuant to CEQ Regulations for Implementing the
Procedural Provisions of the NEPA (40 CFR 1500-1508, 9 1501.7); the National Historic
Preservation Act (9 101[d][2]) (16 US.c. 9 470f), the new Section 106 regulations, "Protection of
Historic Properties" (36 CFR Part BOO,2[cJ[2]); and Executive Order 13175 of November 6, 2000,
pertaining to consultation and coordination with Indian tribal governments, The only comment
letter received in response to this letter was from the Fort Mohave Indian Tribe, which
. requested that it be placed on the distribution list for the EIS. No concerns or issues were raised
in this letter.

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On February 15, 2001, Reclamation staff met with members of seven interested environmental
groups at their request to discuss the proposed lOP. In addition, informal discussions and a
meeting on March 22, 2001, were held with representatives of the Colorado River Basin States to
discuss the technical details of the proposed lOP, A conference call to discuss these technical
aspects was held with the same seven environmental groups on April 3, 2001. Coordination
with the FWS pursuant to the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act was initiated in April 2001,
and several meetings and informal discussions were carried out, Extensive coordination with
the FWS had been previously conducted pursuant to the Section 7 consultation on ISG and the
IA In August and September 2001, Reclamation met with the United States Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) and Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to review the impacts to power
generation from the proposed water transfers, In addition, numerous meetings were held with
the four affected California agencies regarding coordination of NEPA and CEQA compliance,
and on July 26, 2001, Reclamation met with US, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff
to provide an overview of the proposed action, On November 7, 2001, Reclamation met with
the Torres Martinez Indian Tribe to discuss potential impacts to the Salton Sea.

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DEIS -January 2002

LA, lOP, and Related Federal Actions EIS