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large sections of habitat. Associated with these projects were depletions of flows from the river to support agricultural, municipal, and industrial development throughout the Colorado River Basin. The second major reason that these fish are endangered--and it's somewhat related to water development--is the introduction of about 42 species of non-native fishes that occur in the Colorado River system, which either compete for food or space or actually eat the native fishes. Much of the conflict that has developed regarding these fish relates to what Larry was saying about property rights. Back in the early 1920s all of the Colorado River Basin states got together and formed a compact that divided up the waters in the Basin. The compact set aside certain amounts of water that each of the basin states could use for consumptive purposes or to meet their future development needs. The fust compact divided the water between the Upper Colorado River Basin and the Lower Colorado River Basin; subsequent compacts divided it up between all of the states. Following that, other legislation was passed by Congress, including the Colorado River Storage Project Act of 1956, which provided authorization and ultimately funding to construct a number of dams throughout the Upper Colorado River Basin. These dams were built by the Bureau of Reclamation. On top of that you had the states' water rights systems which gives people the right to appropriate water rights from the river basin for "beneficial" uses. In Colorado, the law indicates that "the right to appropriate shall never be denied." People clearly have had and still have the expectation that they can use water for whatever they want, wherever they want. Congress complicated the situation by passing major environmental legislation in the early 1970s, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. In the case of the Endangered Species Act, the law mandates that federal agencies shall insure that any of its is actions are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any threatened or endangered species. Implementation of the ESA created immediate conflicts with other Federal laws such as the Interstate compacts and the Colorado River Project Storage Act. Congress never told us how to solve this dilemma; they just gave us the problem. A number of strategies were employed to resolve the problem. The first that was taken back in the early 1980s was to try to change the Endangered Species Act. Specifically, there was an attempt by the states and the water users to amend the Act to exclude the Colorado River fishes and the Colorado River Basin from the provisions of the Act. Attempts to change the Act were not successful. The other attempt was litigation. As Larry said, litigation seldom solves the problem. In fact it often creates more problems than it solves and leaves more questions unanswered than you started with. Also, the courts were generally ruling in favor of the Endangered Species Act, which didn't give the states much hope that their needs were going to be met through litigation. As an alternative, the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to enter into a negotiated settlement process to look for a way to recover these fish, and at the same time allow water development ; ~ .' ~. I .. 2 to continue in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Starting in 1984, the Service formed a coordinating committee which brought together most of the major players concerned with water development or recovery of the endangered fishes. The major players included: . U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service . U.S. Bureau of Reclamation . Western Area Power Administration . The States of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming . National Audubon Society . Environmental Defense Fund . Colorado Water Congress . Utah Water Users Association . Wyoming Water Development Association For four years the committee reviewed data, tried to understand each other's perspectives about the problem, what the Endangered Species Act required, and what some of their perspectives were about water development. After four years a plan was developed: the Recovery Implementation Program for the Endangered Fish species in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The Recovery Program was formally adopted in 1988 via a cooperative agreement among the governors of the three states (Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming), the Secretary of the Interior, and the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration. After the cooperative agreement was signed resolutions in support of the Recovery Program were provided by several water-user organizations and environmental groups. These resolutions allowed them to become a voting participant in the Recovery Program. The agreement that implemented the Program created a process for managing the effort. A series of committees were established to involve people at the policy, management, and technical levels and to provide a forum for discussions and resolution of issues that came up during the implementation of the program. Each Program participant was allowed to appoint a representative to each committee. That's a short summary of the history of the Recovery Program. Additional information on the activities to recover the fish is contained in the attached brochure [a photocopy of this brochure is included at the back of this paper]. I won't describe those activities, but rather I'd like to talk about the positive factors that are contributing to the success of this effort as well as some of the obstacles or barriers we have yet to overcome. First, on the positive side, it was and continues to be clear that the alternatives to a negotiated solution are unacceptable. Specifically, going to court or trying to change the law were not acceptable or practical solutions. From the Fish and Wildlife Services standpoint, status quo was unacceptable because as time went by the fish were declining in numbers. In addition, the Service didn't have the political support or adequate funding needed to recover the fish and a great deal of time was being spent fighting each other. We said to ourselves, "We can't just sit here and watch the fish become extinct; we may win some Section 7 consultations