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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />water from the project and Needles under its surplus contract, and the financial impact the Project <br />has had upon Needles due to delays in establishing the required "accounting surface", As a result <br />of that discussion, I wrote a letter to Reclamation requesting a timetable for completing the necessary <br />tasks to establish the "accounting surface". <br /> <br />Included in the Board folder is Reclamation's response to the Board's letter. in which it <br />indicated that the accounting surface in the area above Laguna Dam has been determined, while the <br />area below Laguna Dam is in progress. The letter then proceeds to address the Lower Colorado <br />Water Supply Project wells and the City of Needles lack of a water service contract for its present <br />perfected right. Neither of these two issues are holding up the Board's and Reclamation's ability to <br />jointly start the contracting process for Lower Colorado Water Supply Project water. The issue is <br />the identification of those individual water users that may be currently diverting, or want to divert, <br />Colorado River water but do not have a contract with the Secretary. This requires the accounting <br />surface, both above and below Laguna Dam, be identified and agreed to prior to initiating the <br />contracting process for Lower Colorado Water Supply Project water, <br /> <br />Colorado River Endangered Fish SDecies <br /> <br />The Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program (LCR MSCP) Steering <br />Committee met on May 13. 1999, in Las Vegas and adopted the Year Three Budget in the amount <br />of $ I ,048,000. This is essentially the remainder of the original $4.5 million committed by the <br />program partners for the development of the Multi-Species Conservation Plan. California's share <br />for Year Three is $262,000, Arizona's share is $ I 57,200 and Nevada's share is $ I 04,800 for the non- <br />federal partners' fifty percent share of $524,000. The remaining fifty percent federal share of <br />$524,000 will be provided by Reclamation. <br /> <br />At the May 5th Board meeting, there was a discussion concerning U. S. Fish and Wildlife <br />Service's letter regarding Section 7/Section 10 compliance with the Endangered Species Act. Mr. <br />Sean Scaggs and Ms. Laura Brown from the Department of the Interior discussed the contents of this <br />letter with the LCR MSCP Steering Committee. at its May 13th meeting. While there was no specific <br />clarification added to the letter, Mr. Scaggs indicated that it should be possible to use enough <br />foresight in building the MSCP to accomplish the assurances the partners are seeking. <br /> <br />Also at the May 51h Board meeting, it was reported that The Metropolitan Water District of <br />Southern California would serve as Lead Agency for the California Environmental Quality Act <br />(CEQA) process. At that time, the Board had not received a reply to its letter to the Governor's <br />Office of Planning and Research (OPR) asking ifformation ofa Joint Powers Authority (JP A) would <br />be appropriate for the purpose of serving as Lead Agency, A reply has since been received from <br />OPR stating that a JP A could be formed for this purpose or that The California Department of Fish <br />and Game or :y1y public agency involved with developing and implementing the plan could serve <br />as Lead Agency, <br /> <br />Included in the Board Folder is a copy of the May 18, 1999 Federal Register Notice <br />identifying seven public scoping meetings for the EIRlEIS process related to plan development for <br />the LCR MSCP, Also included in the Board folder is a copy of the MWD notice of the same seven <br /> <br />4 <br />