BOARD00863

• Board Meeting Date: 3/29/1999
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Basin Issues - 15-Mile Reach ESA Section 7 Consultation - Status Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

STATE OF COLORADO

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Bill Owens
Governor

MEMORANDUM

Greg E. Walcher
Executive Director, DNR
Peter H. Evans
Director, eWeB

TO:

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

FROM:

Randy Seaholm, Chief, Interstate Streams Investigations

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DATE: March 28, 1999

SUBJECT: Agenda Item 21j, March 29-30,1999 Board Meeting-
Colorado River Basin Issues
15-Mile Reach ESA Section 7 Consultation - Status Report

Prol!rammatic Biolol!ical ODinion
Introduction

On March 5, 1999 the US Fish and Wildlife Service released an 80-page preliminary
draft of the Programmatic Biological Opinion for Upper Colo~ado River from Rifle,
Colorado to Lake Powell (PBO). The PBO addresses the current Recovery Program
actions with respect to estimated existing depletions of 1.2 million acre-feet and
additional (new) depletions of 120,000 acre-feet. The PBO concludes that the proposed
action is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the four Colorado River
endangered fish nor destroy or adversely modify the designated critical habitat of these
species.

Discussion

Staff has reviewed the PBO and provided a number of comments to Tom Pitts. Tom will
coordinate the comments and provide them to water users for further discussion at a
meeting of water users to be held in Glenwood Springs on April 2nd. Most of staff's 9-
pages of comments seek only to clarify the language in the PBO. However, there were a
few substantive issues that will need to be addressed. Those issues are:

I. The scope of the PBO needs to be better defmed and to describe how it will relate to
other major Biological Opinions like that done for Flaming Gorge and in-progress on
the Aspinall Unit. It is not completely clear why the Opinion extends all the way to
Lake Powell when the actions discussed are all above the Gunnison River confluence.
However, we do understand those actions will have impacts all the way to Lake
Powell.
2. The PBO should cover the concentrating effects of depletions on water quality. To
do so would be consistent with the other Recovery Program documents.