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The Tamarack Plan. Colorado's water-related commitment to the Program is commonly <br /> known as the Tamarack Plan. The Tamarack Plan utilizes managed groundwater recharge' from <br /> existing and future wells and ditches located in the lower reaches of the South Platte River in <br /> Colorado to re-time or re-regulate river flows from periods where flows are in excess to Target <br /> Flows to periods where there are shortages to Target Flows. There are three separate <br /> components, or phases, that were negotiated by Colorado for the Tamarack Plan. The FWS <br /> approval of these phases remains contingent upon completion of the NEPA review process and <br /> issuance of a final Programmatic Biological Opinion under Section 7 of the ESA. Each phase <br /> has been developed as the result of a particular need of the Proposed Program. <br /> Phase One. In the early negotiations leading to the Cooperative Agreement, it was <br /> agreed that each state would provide one water-related project that would be the initial <br /> water contribution to mitigate for impacts to the Target Flows by existing water uses. For <br /> Colorado, this commitment was called the Tamarack Plan. As subsequent water-related <br /> commitments were identified in later negotiations, this first commitment by Colorado <br /> became known as Phase One of the Tamarack Plan. Colorado agreed to develop Phase <br /> One of the Tamarack Plan to reduce the occurrence of shortages to Target Flows by <br /> 10,000 acre-feet per year on average. Concurrently,Nebraska agreed to create an <br /> environmental account in Lake McConaughy (100,000 acre-feet of storage space) and <br /> Wyoming agreed to provide an environmental pool in the Pathfinder Modification Project <br /> (34,000 acre-feet of storage space). The Governance Committee and the EIS review team <br /> reached agreement that the combination of these three projects would provide 70,000 <br /> acre-feet of water per year toward the goal of reducing shortages in the habitat by <br /> 130,000 to 150,000 acre-feet per year. The remaining amount of water needed to meet <br /> this goal of reducing shortages to Target Flows would be identified in a basin-wide water <br /> conservation/water supply study and action plan to be completed during the Cooperative <br /> Agreement. <br /> A description of Phase One of the Tamarack Plan is included as Appendix A, Tab 3A to <br /> the Proposed Program. This is the general description of operating criteria for Phase One. <br /> More specific operational and accounting details remain to be completed for integration <br /> into the overall water operations of the Proposed Program. <br /> See Appendix 1 for a description of managed groundwater recharge <br /> 2 <br />