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<br />The Plan addresses impacts of water depletions in the Yampa River Basin, <br />while maintaining instream flows and other habitat components necessary to <br />recover the endangered fishes. The Plan describes alternatives to augment base <br />flows and contemplates enlarging Elkhead Reservoir for this purpose. <br /> <br />· Design and permitting for Elkhead Reservoir enlargement are on schedule, and <br />the Colorado River Water Conservation District (River District) plans to award <br />a construction contract next January. The River District contracted with URS <br />. to complete project plans and specifications. The River District is expected to <br />submit a 404 permit application to the Corps of Engineers early in September. <br />The Corps will process the application in 9Q-120 days, during which time an <br />environmental assessment (EA) will be completed. Previously, Owen Ayres <br />Associates and its subcontractor, Pioneer Environnlental Services, had <br />completed site-specific environnlental.studies for this purpose. <br /> <br />· The Biology Committee tentatively approved a report entitled Flow <br />Recommendationsfor the Duchesne Riverpending incorporation and fmal <br />review of technical comments submitted by the Committee. <br /> <br />· The report entitled FlowRecommendations for the White River has been on <br />hold pending completion of the Duchesne River report. Significant peer <br />review comments required that tIns report be revised and submitted for peer <br />review again. Arevised review schedule will be developed. <br /> <br />· The report entitled Evaluation of Effects of Stage Fluctuations Induced by <br />Hydropower Operations on Overwinter Survival.ofYoung Colorado <br />Pikeminnow was submitted to the Coordinator on April21, 2003, who returned <br />the document to the authors on May 21 for revision. The revised report was <br />resubmitted to the Coordinator on July 31 and is expected to be submitted to <br />peer reviewers and the Biology Committee by mid-August for its consideration <br />at its September meeting. <br /> <br />· The Recovery Program cOl1tracted ArgOlUle National Laboratory (Argonne) to <br />develop a strategic plan to prioritize 'and direct future habitat research and <br />monitoring activities to direct future research toward meeting the recovery <br />goalsofthe fishes. ArgOlUle conducted two meetings of biologists and <br />geomorphologists in December 2002 to assess the state of our knowledge, both <br />in terms of physical processes and biological requirements, 3ndto identify data <br />gaps. Argonne submitted a draft strategic plan to the Recovery Program <br />Director forreview on March 31, 2003. The draft plan was sent out for <br />Biology Committee and peer review on April 14, and peer review comments <br />were provided to the Biology Committee on June 13. The Biology Committee <br />discussed the repOli during its July 2003 meeting, requesting additional time to. <br />submit comments. Argonne provided its responses to peer reviewer comments <br />to the Biology Committee on July 18. Biology Committee comments were due <br />to Argonne by August 8. In the meantime, the Program Director's staffis <br />preparing recommendations for studies beginning in FY 04 to address the <br /> <br />6 <br />