WSPC07208

• File Number: 8408
• Description: River Basin General Correspondence
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 5/17/1993
• Title: Platte River Evaluation: USBR - Platte River Habitat Conservation Program ‎(Draft)‎
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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2.5;4 \",Corps 'Of:Engineers rrri"Lakes 'Projects, South Platte Basin,

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. '.',. The' Corps of ' Engineers "constructed and ,operates three projects 'in' the vicinity of Denver -
Cherry Creek R~ivoir ," Chatfield Reservoir; and Bear ,Creek:Reservoir, 'These projects were
constructed principally tei' provide flood protection for: the, Denver metropolitan 'area and
downstreairiareas... ;All 'three facilities have' 'flood ,control poolS aild .multipurpose'pools for
reCreation and water supply: "The Corps' of Engineers controls the flood control 'storage in each

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In 1991, the Omaha District expressed its intent to enter into informal consultation under Section
7 regarding impacts to threatened and endangered species in Colorado and on the Platte River.
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Completion of informal consultation has been delayed while the Corps revises its operations
manuals and develops an operatio~s model for the reservoirs. !~rmal consultation is not , y:..
expected to be completed until 1995. Due to the responsibilities of the Corps under Section 7 01- .-?
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(a) (2) of the Endangered Species Act, activities and accomplishments under the Program will !(, '<' ...1 ~
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~ not be used to provide reasonable and prudent alternatives for the Tri-Lakes projects. ~I' v
~ )l; 4pReasonable an~dent alternatives resulting from this consultation implemented by the Corps '6 Q:;
that benefit the Big Bend area will be considered as part of Program implementation. However, '?1"
these measures will not be considered as reasonable and prudent alternatives for other federal
actions. W7~ ? ' '

2.6.5 ,Section 7 Consultations on Federal Actions Not Related to Water Projects
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(The Service is required to consulVon all federal actions that may affect threatened and
endangered species in the Big Bend area. Many of these actions are not related to water
projects, such as, federal actions related to bank stabilization projects, housing developments,
transportation activities, pipelines, overhead lines~ and soil conservation activities. The Service
will identify the impacts of these types of actions and specify reasonable and prudent
altematives, as appropriate, independently of the Program. To the maximum extent possible,
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the reasonable and prudent alternatives will support implementation of the Program, and will

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