PRRIP Governance Committee Meeting and Materials

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? Operations of the EA will be integrated into the Platte River Program which began on January 1, 2007. The Platte River Program will be implemented on an incremental basis and administered using an adaptive management approach. During the first increment of 13 years, various water- and land-related activities will be conducted. Effects of Platte River Program activities on the associated habitats and responses of the target species to those effects will be monitored and evaluated during the first increment. A first increment objective is to improve the occurrence of Platte River flows in the associated habitats (relative to the present occurrence of target flows; referred to as "reducing shortages to target flows") by an average of 130,000 to 150,000 acre-feet per year as measured at Grand Island, Nebraska, through reregulation and water conservation and supply projects. The EA in Nebraska is currently in place and two additional projects, in Colorado and Wyoming, will be developed in the initial Program years to supply about 80,000 acre-feet per year toward the Platte River Program's first increment water objective. The remainder of the first increment water objective will be met through a program of incentive- based water conservation and water supply activities described in the Platte River Program's "Reconnaissance-Level Water Action Plan." Service-recommended "target flows" will serve as the reference point for determining periods of excess and shortage in the operation of Platte River Program reregulation and water conservation/supply projects during the first increment, or until such time as new information becomes available which indicates modification of the recommended flows is warranted. Recommended target flows are described in detail in the Service's "Instream Flow Recommendations for the Central Platte River" (May 23, 1994) and "Pulse Flow Requirements . for the Central Platte River" (August 3, 1994) and summarized in Table 2(page 16). Additional information regarding Service instream flow recommendations and pulse flow requirements, as they relate to the Platte River Program, can be found in, Platte River Recovery Implementation Program, Attachment 5, Section 11, Water Plan Reference Materials (December 7, 2005). Note that hydrologic conditions for applying target flows are defined and designated as either "wet", "normal" or "dry" (Anderson, Rodney 2006), and that hydrologic conditions relevant to operations of the Districts' systems are designated as either "very wet", "wet", "transitional", "dr}?", or "very dry" (see Appendix B, pages 20-21). This EA AOP outlines the Service's general plans for operation of the EA in the 2008 water year. Changing hydrologic conditions and other considerations may require a change in the course of action described in this AOP. Attachment 5, Section 1 of the PRRIP document (see Appendix D, pages 29-35) describes the coordination procedures between the EA Manager, Program Executive Director, and Project Sponsors. Program water operations for enhancing peak, or pulse, or other flows by reregulating water in the Districts' systems and intentionally bypassing Program EA water are also described. SUMMARY OF WATER YEAR 2007 ? The Districts are required to predict Storable Natural Inflows (S1V1) and Water Year-Type (i.e., very wet, wet, transitional, dry, and very dry) by October 15 of each year. The SNI for October through March is used for calculating the "Type-of-Year" whereas the S1VI for October through Water Year 2008 EA AOP 2 October 15, 2007