PRRIP Purposes and Overview Draft (2)

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impacts of new water related activities will be addressed by the states and the federal government in the manner and to the extent described in the states' depletions plans in the Program Water Plan (Attachment 5, Sections 7, 8, and 9), and the federal government's depletions plan (Attachment 5, Section 10) or a project proponent may proceed with an ESA Section 7(a)(2) consultation on its own. The Organizational Structure Document (Attachment 6) and the Water Advisory Committee Charter (Attachment 6, Appendix H) describe the responsibilities for carrying out the Water Plan of the Program and how those responsibilities are assigned to the Signatories, the Governance Committee, the Water Advisory Committee, and Program Project Sponsors. 1. The First Increment Program Water Objective, FWS Instream Flow Recommendations for Central Platte River, and Lower Platte River Flows FWS has developed instream flow recommendations for the central Platte River, which are described and quantified in the Program Water Plan (Attachment 5, Section 11). These FWS recommendations for the central Platte River include target flows, peak flows and other flows deemed important by the FWS. The FWS recommendations will be examined through the Adaptive Management Plan as described in Section III.C and may be modified by the FWS accordingly. a. Target Flow Recommendations. The term "target flows" refers to FWS's recommended species and annual pulse flows for the central Platte River. The Program's First Increment water objective is to provide water capable of reducein shortages to FWS target flows by an average of 130,000-150,000 acre-feet per year. Except as described in paragraphs b. and c. below, Program water will be used to reduce those shortages. The states have not agreed that the target flows are biologically or hydrologically necessary to benefit or recover target species. However, the DOI and the states have agreed that the target flows can be used as a reference to determine progress towards meeting the Program's first increment water objectives, so long as the FWS's target flows are examined through the Adaptive Management Plan and peer review and may be modified by FWS accordingly. b. Peak and Other Flow Recommendations. The FWS's instream flow recommendations for the central Platte River also include the periodic occurrence of peak flows at certain times of the year. Those peak flows are in excess of the target flows for the same time periods. During Program formulation, FWS also identified additional flows such as short-term channel management "pulses" that are lower than peak flows but are in excess of target flows and are deemed by the FWS to be important to the creation and/or maintenance of habitat for the target species in the central Platte SepteT&ef?November 4729 2005 Program Document 11 1