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STATE OF COLORADO <br />EXECUTIVE CHAMBERS <br />136 State Capitol <br />Denver, Colorado 80203 -1792 <br />Phone (303) 866 -2471 <br />February 28, 2006 <br />The Honorable Pete V. Domenici, Chairman <br />The Honorable Harry Reid, Ranking Member <br />Energy and Water Development Subcommittee <br />Committee on Appropriations <br />United States Senate <br />127 Dirksen Senate Office Building <br />Washington, D.C. 20510 <br />Dear Chairman Domenici and Senator Reid: <br />�4 OF.COlOP <br />rn O <br />'F1876� <br />B i l l Owens <br />Governor <br />The State of Colorado is an active partner in the Upper Colorado River <br />Endangered Fish Recovery Program and the San Juan River Basin Endangered Fish <br />Recovery Program, both of which have been very successful in working toward recovery <br />of four endangered and threatened fish species in the Upper Colorado River Basin while <br />allowing water development to continue. <br />I am writing to ask your support this year for funding in the President's Budget <br />which seeks to appropriate $4,594,000 to the Bureau of Reclamation for the benefit of the <br />two programs, designated in a budget line item entitled "Endangered Species Recovery <br />Implementation Program" for the Bureau's Upper Colorado Region. Specifically, I ask <br />for your support for $3,104,000 for construction activities for the Upper Colorado River <br />Endangered Fish Recovery Program; $1,090,000 for the San Juan River Basin Recovery <br />Implementation Program and for $400,000 for activities dedicated to avoiding jeopardy <br />for the four fish. These expenditures are authorized under by Public Law 106 -392, which <br />implemented a cost -share arrangement between the federal government; the states of <br />Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico; and water and power providers. <br />These requested appropriations for 2007 allow the two Programs to do the work <br />of species recovery by providing access to expanded habitat through construction of fish <br />passage structures and construction of fish screens avoid entrainment of the endangered <br />fish in water diversion projects. Of particular interest in Colorado is the construction of <br />the Elkhead Reservoir enlargement in Northwestern Colorado, wherein the Upper <br />Colorado Program will ultimately secure up to 7000 acre -feet of water to augment the <br />Yampa River to provide habitat enhancement in low -flow months of the year. <br />These Programs are extraordinary in their accomplishments: both Programs serve <br />as the means of Endangered Species Act compliance for over 1000 projects representing <br />over 2.9 million acre -feet of water depletions annually, and both operate under a set of <br />