PRRIP Purposes and Overview Draft (2)

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central and lower Platte River deemed by the FWS to be important to the creation and/or maintenance of habitat for the target species. FWS recognizes that in order to achieve the Program's first increment water objectives, the operation of such projects and the implementation of such depletions plans will, at times, cause an unavoidable adverse impact on one or more of the recommended flows for the central Platte River or on flows in the lower Platte River. FWS agrees that those adverse impacts are acceptable as long as such operation and implementation is in accordance with the Program Water Plan (Attachment 5), including the depletions plans, any Governance Committee approved operating rules andJor procedures, and other Program activities. This Suoh-agreement by FWS is subject to NEPA and ESA analyses and review. 2. Program Water Operations to Meet First Increment Water Objectives a. Tamarack L Pathfinder Modification and the Nebraska Environmental Account (Initial Program Projects). A portion of the Program's First Increment water objective will be met with three initial Program projects described in the Program Water Plan. They are: (1) "An Environmental Account for Storage Reservoirs on the Platte River System in Nebraska", which includes activities by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") Project No. 1417 and FERC Project No. 1835 in Nebraska (Attachment 5, Section 5); (2) the "Wyoming's Pathfinder Modification Project" (Attachment 5, Section 4); and (3) the "Colorado's Initial Water Project (Tamarack I)" (Attachment 5, Section 3). If implemented and operated as described, these three projects together will be credited for an average of 80,000 acre-feet per year toward the First Increment water objective of providing water capable of reducing shortages to target flows by an average of 130,000-150,000 acre-feet per year. b. Water Conservation/Supplv Activities. The remaining portion of the Program's First Increment water objectives will be met through a program of incentive-based water conservation and water supply activities. The "Reconnaissance-Level Water Action Plan" included in the Program Water Plan (Attachment 5, Section 6) describes potential water conservation/supply projects that may be included in the Program with corresponding estimates of the reregulated or conserved water that can be credited toward Program objectives if the respective projects are implemented. The "Reconnaissance-Level Water Action Plan" also sets forth the process for including other water conservation/supply projects in the Program during the First Increment. The "Reconnaissance- Level Water Action Plan" describes the process for moving water Segtenber-November 4-29 2005 Program Document 14 1