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DRAFT FINAL <br />Scope of Work <br />Reconnaissance Level Study <br />South Platte Water Management and Storage Sites <br />I. INTRODUCTION <br />Background <br />The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) has approved funding for a <br />reconnaissance -level study (Study) to evaluate water management and surface water storage <br />alternatives in the lower South Platte Basin in Colorado. The Study is intended to provide <br />information that will assist in identifying surface water storage structures that could facilitate <br />Colorado's management of South Platte River flows, including coordination with ground <br />water recharge projects, for in -state beneficial uses, such as water right and South Platte <br />River Compact administration and providing benefits for biological species of concern in <br />Colorado, and for participation in an endangered species program (Proposed Program) being <br />developed pursuant to the Platte River Cooperative Agreement (CA). <br />The CA was signed by the states of Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, and the US Department <br />of the Interior in July 1997. The overall goal of the CA is to develop a basin -wide program to <br />maintain and improve flow and habitat conditions for the whooping crane, piping plover, <br />interior least tern and pallid sturgeon along the Central Platte River in Nebraska and to serve <br />as the reasonable and prudent alternative to offset the effects of existing and new water <br />related activities in the basin that, in the absence of such a program, would be found by the <br />U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be likely to jeopardize the continued existence of these <br />species or adversely modify designated critical habitat. <br />The water goal of the Proposed Program is to reduce shortages to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife <br />Service's "target flows" in the Central Platte by an average of 130,000 to 150,000 acre -feet <br />annually. Colorado proposes to contribute to the Proposed Program by reregulating 27,000 <br />acre -feet of water by means of groundwater re- regulation projects that will shift the timing of <br />DRAFT FINAL - September 2000 <br />