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'..0.... .....n7 U .lJ:.:J 2002] THE lAST GREEN lAGOON 953 (ESA) have both direct and indirect effects on the administration of water rights and their users' ability to exercise them.3oo In recent years, NEPAand the ESA have played a particularly significant role in the management of the Lower Colorado and efforts to restore the Delta. This section evaluates two proposals that use federal environmental statutes as the basis for securing flows for the Delta. The Pacific Institute proposal attempted to use the NEPA process to secure flows, while a recent lawsuit, Defenders of Wildlife. v. Norton, is based upon the Endangered Species Act. 1. The Pacific Institute Proposal The Pacific Institute proposal originated in a Februroy 15, 2000 letter submitted by a coalition of environmental organizations to the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). In their letter, the coalition proposed a set of cpteria for BOR's consideration in a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) being developed in support of the new Colorado River Surplus. Criteria.301 The proposal centered ona basic principle that Secretary Babbitt had stated would be applied in the development of the new Surplus Criteria"": namely, that surpluses would be determined and allocated with "no net loss" of environmental benefits.302 The Pacific Institute proposal identified a key shortfall of the alternatives then under serious consideration for the DEIS (namely, the Six States and California alternatives)303: each would have resulted in a net decline in both the frequency and the volume of the. flood floWs on which the Delta depends.304 To achieve the "no net loss" standard articulated by then- Secretary Babbitt, the proposal argued that any surplus criteria that would decrease net deliveries of water below the 300. See SAX ET AL., supra note 63, at 565-94. 301. Letter from American Rivers et aI., to David Hayes, Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior, and Robert Johnson, Regional Director, Lower Colorado River Region, Bureau of Reclamation (Feb. 15, 2000), reprinted in FINAL EIS. supra note 71, at Attachment G: Swplus Criteria Proposal by Pacijk Institute. The coalition included American Rivers, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense, Friends of Arizona Rivers, Glen Canyon Institute, Grand Canyon Trust, Land and Water Fund of the Rockies, the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, the Sierra Club, and the Sonoran Institute. 302. Id. 303. As discussed previously, the alternative that was eventually selected in the FINAL EIS - the Basin States alternative - represented a compromise between the California alternative and the Six States alternative. 304. See id As discussed below, the Pacific Institute's criticisms are equally applicable to the Basin States alternative.