BOARD00562

• Board Meeting Date: 5/20/2002
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Basin Issues - Upper Colorado River Recovery Program - Extending the Program
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Briefing Paper, Proposed Language and Supporting Material To Extend
The Authorized Periods for Appropriation and Implementation Within PL 106-392
May 2002

Page 5

Section 3(h) of PL 106-392 required extension, at least one year prior to the expiration, of
the Cooperative Agreement initiating the Upper Colorado Recovery Program to "conform with this
Act." In December 2001, the Secretary of the Interior, the Govemors of Colorado, Utah and
Wyoming and the Administrator of the Westem Area Power Administration executed an extension
of the Cooperative Agreement for the Upper Colorado Recovery Program tluough September 30,
2013. The Committee fmds that the Extension of the Cooperative Agreement executed by the
parties in December 2001 does conform to that provision ofPL 106-392.

This legislation does not change or affect the amount of the appropriation authorization
provided for in PL 106-392; the funding authorization sums set forth therein remain the same.

NEED FOR THE AMENDMENT OF PUBLIC LAW 106-392

PL 106-392 established fmite appropriation ceilings for completing the construction
proj ects believed to be necessary to recover the fish populations to the point where delisting under
the Endangered Species Act occurs. Although population responses in these long-lived fish will
lag the completion of the capital construction projects and facilities, the Recovery Programs are
undertaking those steps believed to be necessary, based on current biological understanding of the
four species' needs, to allow recovery to occur. In the main, the remaining steps include and
involve the construction of facilities to improve and manage habitat, provide passage for these
migratory endangered fishes and prevent entrapment in water diversion structures, manage
nonnative fish species and facilities for the genetic conservation and propagation of the endangered
fish; all of which is intended to reestablish self-sustaining populations in the waters of the Upper
Colorado River Basin and accomplish recovery and remove these species from federal Endangered
Species Act protections.

The expenditure of authorized federal funds and contribution of non-federal funds is
facilitating progress towards recovery of the four fish species while at the same time materially
assisting the participating States' water users ability to continue developing compact-apportioned
water resources in compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act. Thus, the authorizations
contained in PL 106-392 are directly contributing to the Upper Colorado Recovery Program and
San Juan Recovery Program's dual objectives of recovering the fish while allowing water
development to proceed.

PL 106-392 recognized, at least implicitly, that additional legislation might be necessary as
the Congress established and oversees authorization for these two cooperative intergovemmental
Recovery Programs. Section I of the Law ended with the words "in order to accomplish the
objectives of these programs within a currently established time schedule." Section 3 of the Law
specified authorization periods for appropriations for the Recovery Programs and for
implementation of the capital projects by the Secretary of the Interior tluough the Bureau of
Reclamation; the relevant language ended in each case with the phrase "unless reauthorized by an
Act of Congress."