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<br />r , ., , <br /> <br />- 6 - <br /> <br />On September 27 a large meeting was held in Denver for the <br />purpose of hearing officials of the USBR and F&WS explain the process <br />under which a "reasonable and prudent" alternative can be"developed <br />by all interested parties. See Aooendix D for a list of participants. <br />Following explanations by Commissioner of Reclamation, Dennis Underwood, <br />and Assistant Regional Director, RicK Gold, officials of USBR and F&WS <br />answered many questions concerning the proposed process to reach a new <br />biological opinion that will permit construction to start on A-LP in <br />1991. They were very careful to explain that there was no guarantee <br />- . <br />that the imolpmpnt~tinn plan in the new alternative would work, or that <br />. <br />at the end of five years of research there would be "sufficient progress. <br />in the recover th ndan s ecies for the decision to b <br />by F&WS that the irrigation features of the A-LP could be constructed. <br />They also explained that three other actions, such as appealing to the <br />Endangered Species Exemption Committee, Congressional legislation, or <br />doing nothing could not be expected to be successful under present <br />conditions. <br /> <br />... <br /> <br />In lieu of describing the details of the USBR-F&WS alternative, <br />attached as Appendix E is a letter dated September 28, 1990, or the <br />day following that of tbe above meeting. A USBR news release on the <br />subject is also in Aooendix E. <br /> <br />On October 3 a meeting was held in Albuquerque that was attended <br />by representatives of the Indian Tribes, Colorado, New Mexico, and <br />various water user organizations. The announced purpose of the meeting <br />was to ascertain if there was a possibility of the parties developing <br />satisfactory modifications to the USBR's September 28 letter to the <br />F&WS. At this meeting we proposed that consultation under Section 7 <br />of the Endangered Species Act be completed on the entire A-LP instead <br />of only on Ridges Basin Reservoir, Durango Pumping Plant, and the inlet <br />