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Page 4 <br />ervice has reviewed the information contained in the BA submitted by your office on <br />er 5, 2011. Supplemental BA information also was received in a November 8, 2011, <br />from ERO Resources Corporation. <br />We mncur with your determinations of "likely to adversely affect" for the endangered <br />wh ping crane, interior least tern, pallid sturgeon, the threatened northern Great Plains <br />popi dation of the piping plover, and the western prairie fringed orchid in the central and lower <br />Plat a River in Nebraska. We also concur with your determination of "likely to adversely <br />aff " for designated whooping crane critical habitat in Nebraska. <br />The ervice concurs with your determinations of "not likely to adversely affect" for the <br />end4ngered American burying beetle and "no effect" for the endangered Eskimo curlew in <br />SCOPE OF THE TIER 2 BIOLOGICAL OPINION <br />The oposed Project is a component of "the continued operation of existing and certain new <br />wat - related activities" needing a federal action evaluated in the Tier 1 PBO, and flow - <br />rel effects of the Federal Action are consistent with the scope and the determination of <br />effe is in the rune 16, 2006 PBO. Because the District has elected to participate in the <br />P , ESA compliance for flow - related effects to federally listed endangered and threatened <br />s es and designated critical habitat from the Project is provided to the extent described in <br />the ier 1 PBO. <br />This biological opinion applies to the Project's effects to listed endangered and threatened <br />speces and designated critical habitat as described in the PBO for the first thirteen years of <br />the I RRIP (i.e., the anticipated duration of the first PRRIP increment). <br />OF THE FEDERAL ACTION <br />The Federal Action is the District's need, as the Applicant, for Nationwide Permits 3 and 12 <br />frorr the Corps for modification of the Smelter Pipeline Reservoir near Alma and north of the <br />Tow i of Fairplay, off Highway 9 and County Road 12 in Park County. Due to its age and <br />lack Df maintenance, the existing reservoir is not an efficient structure for water storage. The <br />Sme ter Pipeline Reservoir has very gentle slopes and is not capable of holding water for <br />stor a and release. Additionally, the reservoir has filled with sediment over the years. <br />The riginal Smelter Pipeline Reservoir is thought to have been constructed around 1909 as <br />that s the priority date awarded to the reservoir in the Decree in Case No. W- 4322 -72. <br />Histo irically, the reservoir had a surface area of approximately 4.87 acres with a storage <br />cap ity of about 22.6 acre -feet (af); the resulting evaporative loss would have been 13.44 of <br />per . The exact water storage capacity of the original reservoir is unknown, but is <br />beli ed to be similar to that listed in the W- 4322 -72 Decree (22.6 of by Decree and 21.69 of <br />fro an area capacity survey in 2000). In the mid to late 1970's the reservoir was <br />