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United States Department of the Interior FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE Mountain-Prairie Region IN REPLY REFER TO: MAILING ADDRESS: Post Office Box 25486 Denver Federal Center Denver, Colorado 80225 STREET LOCATION: 134 Union Blvd. Lakewood, Colorado 80228 ES/GJ-6-CO-95-F-009 CO/KSINE/UT DRAFT Memorandum To: Regional Director, Bureau of Reclamation, Great Plains Region, Billings, Montana (Attention: Area Manager--Loveland, Colorado) From: Regional Director, Region 6, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver, Colorado Subject: Draft Amendment to the Final Biological Opinion for Round II Water Sale from Ruedi Reservoir This responds to your June 3, memorandum regarding section 7 consultation for the continuance ofRuedi Round II water sales. Your memorandum ofJuly 1997 states that Bureau of Reclamation has been unable to implement all the elements of the reasonable and prudent alternative presented in the May 26, 1995, biological opinion on the subject project. Reclamation has been unable to implement element 2 of the alternatives which requires an interim agreement between Reclamation, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board to make the remaining uncommitted yield (21,650 acre-feet) ofRuedi Reservoir available for release and delivery through the IS-Mile Reach, for the benefit of the Colorado River endangered fishes. Therefore, in February 1997, the Service asked Reclamation to refrain from issuing further Round II water contracts. The Service understands that Reclamation currently has requests for 6,135 af of water from Ruedi Reservoir. As an amendment to the 1995 biological opinion, the Service has developed the following reasonable and prudent alternative and reinitiation language to replace language presented in the 1995 opinion. REASONABLE AND PRUDENT ALTERNATIVE Regulations (50 CFR 402.02) implementing section 7 of the Act define reasonable and prudent alternatives as alternative actions, identified during fonna\ consultation, that: 1) can be implemented in a manner consistent with the intended purpose of the action; 2) can be implemented consistent with the scope of the action agency's legal authority and jurisdiction;