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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 0011422 Executive Summary INTRODUCTION Background Just after the end of World War II the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ("Reclamation") began a comprehensive inventory of water development potential in the Colorado River basin. Included in this inventory was the identification of the potential Juniper ReservoirlDeadman Bench Canal, MaybeU, and Cross Mountain projects on the Yampa River mainstem. FoUowing the 1948 Upper Colorado River Compact and authorization of the Colorado River Storage Project (which included the Glen Canyon, Curecanti, Navajo, and Flaming Gorge projects), these Yampa River projects were designated as possible participating projects and were earmarked for further study. The Colorado River Water Conservation District ("River District") filed for water rights for the Juniper project shortly after the post-compact studies of the Yampa and neighboring White River basins were completed by Reclamation in 1957. In 1962, the River District was granted water rights for the project with a 1954 priority date. Because of its location relatively low in the basin, its relatively senior water rights priority, and the magnitude of its potential water rights call (or "draft") on the river, the Juniper project water rights are generally considered to be the controlling water rights in the basin. It has been estimated that roughly one-third of the current consumptive use in the basin occurs under water rights junior to the Juniper project rights. In a 1989 study for The Nature Conservancy ("TNC"), the potential draft of th.e Juniper rights was estimated to be 862,000 acre-feet (at) per year, or nearly 75% of the annual flow of the river at the nearby Maybell gage (Wheeler, 1989). Thus the development of the Juniper project would have the potential to severely constrain both existing and future water uses in the basin. However, largely due to unfavorable economics and the increasing complexity of environmental permitting, the Juniper project has not proceeded to design and construction. The Recovery Program In January of 1988, the Secretary of the Interior signed a cooperative agreement with the Western Area Power Administration and the governors of the three Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming to implement a recovery plan (known formally as the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin, or "Recovery Program" for short) for the endangered fishes in the upper Colorado River basin. This agreement was the product of years of difficult negotiations between state and federal agencies, water development interests, and environmental organizations. It provides for the implementation of a broad range of measures for protection and recovery of the listed species, including habitat management, habitat development and maintenance, stocking of native species, management of non-native species, and ongoing research. Because of its relatively undeveloped state, the Yampa River is thought to contain some of the largest remaining areas of natural habitat of these endangered Colorado River fishes. It has been assigned highest priority for acquisition of water rights for the Recovery Program. In July of 1989, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ("Service") published a study evaluating the. habitat use, potential limiting factors, and relationships between life cycle and annual flow events of the four fish species in the Yampa River (fyus and Karp, 1989). Using the biological information provided by this study, the Service developed interim flow S-1 .ii ""~,