WSP11463

• File Number: 8200.760
• Description: Yampa General Publications - Correspondence - Reports
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 7/20/1999
• Author: Ayres Associates
• Title: Yampa River Issues 1999 - Water Management Requirements for the Yampa River Basin - Draft Synthesis Report
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Juniper rights were already diverting water prior to the date the Juniper rights were decreed,
The CRWCD decided to allow upstream water users with water rights junior to the Juniper
rights to remove up to 65,000 af so as to not penalize junior users for not declaring their rights
earlier.

2.2 Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was passed in 1973 and directs the federal government to
conserve listed species and their critical habitats, It prohibits federal action that would
jeopardize a listed species' existence. Section 7 of the ESA requires that federal agencies
consult with the U,S, Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) concerning impacts of their proposed
actions on threatened and endangered (T&E) species, Within the Colorado River Basin. four
T&E species have been listed under the ESA: Colorado pikeminnow (formerly Colorado
squawfish), humpback chub, razorback sucker, and bony tail chub,

In the late 1970s the USFWS first consulted with the USBR under Section 7 of the ESA on the
impacts of its water projects in the Colorado River Basin. An attempt in the early 1980s to
exempt the Colorado River Basin from the provisions of the ESA failed, However, the ESA
was amended to encourage interagency cooperation in resolving conflicts between water
resource development and protection of endangered species.

After four years of negotiations, in 1988 the Secretary of the Interior, the governors of
Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah, and the Administrator of the Western Area Power
Administration signed a cooperative agreement establishing the Recovery Implementation
Program for Endangered Fishes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, The goal of the Recovery
Implementation Program is to recover endangered fishes while providing for existing and future
water development in the Basin. The Recovery Implementation Program provides a means to
address these issues in a coordinated manner and serves as a "reasonable and prudent
alternative" as defined by the ESA to avoid jeopardizing listed species or adverse modification
of their critical habitats,

A Section 7 Agreement and a Recovery Implementation Program Recovery Action Plan
(RIPRAP) were developed in 1993, The (Agreement) established a framework for conducting
consultations under Section 7 of the ESA on the impacts of existing and future water
depletions in the Upper Basin, It also established procedures to determine if there has been
sufficient progress in the recovery of listed fishes to enable the Recovery Program to continue
to serve as a reasonable and prudent alternative,

2.2.1 Critical Habitat

The Endangered Species Act and USFWS regulations require designation of critical habitat
where practicable, usually concurrent with listing the species. In the case of the Yampa River,
as well as elsewhere in the Colorado River system, critical habitat was not designated
concurrently for a variety of reasons; designation of critical habitat was made on March 21,
1994,

Critical habitat has been designated on the mainstem of the Yampa River within Moffat County
for each one of the four listed T&E species. The area designated as critical habitat for
Colorado pikeminnow is the Yampa River and its 1 DO-year floodplain from State Highway 394
Bridge downstream to the confluence with the Green River (Figure 1),

Draft 07/28/99

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Ayres Associates