9582

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9582
• Author: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
• Title: Final Environmental Impact Statement - Navajo Reservoir Operations Volume III Comments and Responses.
• USFW Year: 2006.
• USFW - Doc Type: Grand Junction - Durango, CO.
• Copyright Material: NO

Volume III - Comments and Responses
FEIS - Navajo Reservoir Operations
actions, are discussed in the EIS, and additional information is provided at the end of
chapter III in the FEIS. Impacts are arrayed for both Indian and non-Indian interests
(see the "Impacts Analysis," "Indian Trust Assets," "Environmental Justice," and "Other
Impacts Considered" sections of the EIS). Long-range impacts are summarized in the EIS as
follows:
A failure to develop the ALP Project, to complete the NIIP, to fulfill the Jicarilla
Apache Nation third-party water contract with Public Service of New Mexico, and
- to implement other water projects could put future development and use of water
rights in the Basin, particularly in Colorado and New Mexico, to be at risk to
Indian senior water right claims.
. In addition, an accounting of the economic impacts of not constructing the ALP
Project is addressed in the "Indian Trust Assets" and "Environmental justice"
sections of the EIS. For these and other reasons, Reclamation does not believe that
a new draft EIS needs to be prepared before the EIS is finalized.
General Comment 20: The issue of "recovery" of endangered species and their critical
habitat is contentious:
(a) Such recovery is incompatible with the cumulative effects of diversions and
depletions for new or existing uses.
Response: The SJRBRIP collected data on the San Juan River between 1991 and 1997 to
- determine the response of endangered fish and their habitat to riverflows. The research
involved quantification of several relationships, including flow /geomorphology, fish
habitat/geomorphology, and flow/habitat availability relationships. Based on these
studies, flow recommendations were developed. These recommendations could be met
while existing water uses and some level of future water uses occurred. Thus, the
cumulative effects of existing and certain future diversions and water uses have been taken
into account when recommending riverflows for fish recovery.

. (b) Such recovery is at the expense of the sport fishery, recreation interests, and
economic interests.

Response: Implementation of the Flow Recommendations is expected to adversely affect
the trout fishery in the San Juan River, as reported in the DEIS and FEIS. Recreational
use of this fishery will be harmed, and the DEIS also reported a lowering of the quality
of downstream rafting in certain years. This would have an adverse economic effect.
However, the implementation of the Flow Recommendations also protects existing water
- uses in terms of ESA compliance as well as providing the greatest likelihood of future water
development; these effects would result in positive economic effects, as noted in the DEIS.