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Environmental Issues <br />The environmental permitting process would be rigorous for Grand Valley Lake Reservoir. Some of the <br />steps in this process are briefly discussed below. <br />Compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) would be required for all of the <br />alternatives considered in this study since the reservoir site and the conveyance alignments are located <br />on federal land. One of the primary intentions of the NEPA process is to avoid, minimize and mitigate <br />adverse environmental consequences of federal actions. NEPA requires analysis and documentation of <br />potential adverse and beneficial effects of a proposed action and alternatives and an open public <br />involvement process. This would likely be a very large effort in the permitting of Grand Valley Lake <br />pro j ect. <br />A very significant environmental permit to be secured is a Clean Water Act - Section 404 Dredge and <br />Fill permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE). Even when the impacts of a project are <br />anticipated to be modest, the process of obtaining a Section 404 permit for new storage projects may <br />take several years from initiation of the NEPA process. The primary guidance in embarking on the <br />permitting process for a new dam and reservoir storage project is the development of a defensible <br />Purpose and Need for the project. The 404 permitting process requires that the `least environmentally <br />damaging practicable alternative that addresses the purpose and need be pursued. The Grand Valley <br />Lake project will need to have sponsors with demonstrative current or future water supply needs to <br />support a federally-endorsed "purpose and need statement" and the project must be selected as the least <br />environmentally damaging practicable alternative among all the sponsors other potential supply and <br />demand management options to meet their future needs. It is recommended that these permitting <br />considerations and several others not mentioned in this report should be closely considered prior to any <br />additional technical or economic analyses of the project in the future. <br />Opinion of Probable Cost <br />Table E2 summarizes preliminary opinions of probable construction and operating costs for six <br />alternative project configurations. The unit costs of storage range from approximately $4,300/af to <br />more $14,000/af.. Unit costs for yield range from $5,200/af to more than $] 0,000/af, however, as <br />discussed above, much of the yield is assigned to help accomplish the goals of the Coloardo River <br />Endangered Species Recovery Program and this program currently anticipates other sources of water to <br />accomplish its purposes. Therefore, it currently appears unlikely that funding from the program would <br />be available to support the Grand Valley Lake projects. As the table shows, the unit costs for both <br />storage and yield demonstrate the economies of scale for the larger project size. <br />� I <br />� F� �- -- �z ;, ,� <br /> I' <br />2/22/10 <br />