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Virtually every energy project--oil shale, coal gasification, power plants, coal-slurry pipelines, etc. consumes vast quantities of water. It is estimated, for example, that the proposed synfuels development will increase the annual consumptive water use in the Upper Basin by about 150,000 acre-feet per year for each million barrels (oil equiva- lent) per day of production. Additional problems are anticipated as a result of the waste materials, pollutants and contaminants associated with the energy mineral extraction and conversion processes. The oil shale industry will produce retorted shale and other waste materials-- contaminated mine waters, raw shale, carcinogenic dust and vapor, coke, spent catalysts, diatomaceous earth, deactivated carbon and lime and alum flocculents. Coal gasification processes will produce highly saline water, ammonia, CO2, phenols, and other organics. A single underground mine and surface retorting operation producing 50,000 barrels per day (like the Colony Project of Faxon and Tosco Corp.) will put out an estimated 20 million tons or more of waste per year. Large increases in human populations and the need to provide associated services and facilities have also been predicted. By the end of the decade, 3 million people will inundate the Basin that now harbors but 5 percent of the nation's population. For energy production alone, it is estimated that 108 new high schools, 38,000 additional police and firemen, 26,000 hospital beds, 11,000 doctors, 400,000 new dwelling units, and 5 to 10 billion dollars worth of roads and railroads will have to be constructed. A major concern is that if the predicted growth occurs, it will far exceed the absorptive capacity of municipal governments and will result not in permanent . communities but in boom towns which will greatly modify the social and economic structure of the Mountain States. All development in the Upper Basin, to a greater or lesser extent, will cause changes in the Basin's land, water and air resources which in turn have direct and indirect impacts on the fish and wildlife resources of the Basin. Fish and wildlife resources important to wildlife management agencies and occurring in those geographical areas of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming shown in Figure 1 are extensive and diverse. They include categories of threatened and endangered fish, birds, plants and other animals, migratory birds, big game, aquatic resources and important habitat of high interest or management concern. III. Objectives The following are generalized resource objectives for fish and wildlife resources of the Upper Basin; more specific resource goals or objectives are presented in Section IV, Although not explicitly indicated, each objective is conceptually consistent-with a balance between preservation of fish and wildlife values and development of energy, mineral and recreational resources. 0