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Southern Ute Indian Tribe, and the Jicarilla Apache Indian Tribe to set forth certain <br />agreements and to establish a San Juan Recovery Implementation Program (SJRIP). The <br />SMP provides the basis for the recovery of the endangered fishes of the San Juan River. <br />Participants hope these implementation programs will provide reasonable and prudent <br />alternatives to the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat by future water <br />developments. It is impossible, however, to predict the outcome of all future Section 7 <br />Consultations involving endangered fishes in the Colorado River Basin. If the Upper Basin <br />and San Juan RIPS do not show sufficient and timely progress in recovering endangered <br />fishes, some planned water developments may be modified, scaled back, or foregone. <br />Because the future cannot be predicted with certainty, the economic analysis described in this <br />report is based. on the conservative assumption that the RIPs will not show sufficient progress <br />in recovering endangered fishes and that some planned water developments will be foregone <br />as a result. This assumption provides an upper bound on the potential magnitude of <br />economic impacts associated with the critical habitat designations. However, this analysis <br />does not include impacts that may result from projects that have already undergone Section 7 <br />Consultation which may require re- initiation of consultation.' <br />B. Flow Related Activities <br />A critical element of the analysis was the determination of the current hydrologic conditions <br />in the Basin. This effort was undertaken by the USFWS and the Bureau of Reclamation. <br />2 Decisions to re- initiate Section 7 Consultation would be determined by the USFWS on a case -by -case basis. <br />For the purposes of this economic analysis, it was assumed that prior consultations would not be affected. In the <br />event a project is re- visited, formal Section 7 Consultation must be re- initiated on these projects if: <br />a. New information reveals affects of the project that may affect listed species of critical habitat in a <br />manner of to the extent not previously considered; <br />b. The project is modified in a manner that causes an effect to the listed species or critical habitat that <br />was not considered in the biological opinion; or <br />C. A new species is listed or critical habitat designated that may be affected by the project. <br />I -21 <br />