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<br />including recreation and fish and wildlife benefits, are merely incidental. The Court in this case <br />invalidated a contract between the City of Albuquerque and the Bureau of Reclamation for storage <br />of the City's San Juan-Chama Project water in Elephant Butte Reservoir because the sole purpose <br />of such storage was for recreational use. Afterwards, Congress enacted Public Law 97- ] 40, the Act <br />of December 29, 1981, to authorize the storage of San Juan-Chama Project water in Abiquiu <br />Reservoir and Elephant Butte Reservoir by contractors for project water "... for recreation and other <br />beneficial purposes ..." Again, Public Law 97-140 simply permits a portion of the San Juan-Chama <br />Project yield to be stored in the two reservoirs specified for recreation and other beneficial purposes; <br />it does not otherwise alter Public Law 87-483 or confer upon Navajo Dam and Reservoir a primary <br />purpose of providing recreation and fish and wildlife uses. <br /> <br />Public Law 90-537, the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968, was enacted: "... 10 provide a <br />program for the further comprehensive development of the water resources of the Colorado River <br />Basin and for the provision of additional and adequate water supplies for use in the upper as well as <br />in the lower Colorado River Basin." Section 102 of Public Law 90-537 also declares the program: <br />"... to be for the purposes, among others, of regulating the flow of the Colorado River, controlling <br />floods; improving navigation; providing for the storage and delivery of waters of the Colorado River <br />for reclamation of lands, including supplemental water supplies, and for municipal, industrial, and <br />other beneficial purposes; improving water quality; providing for basic public outdoor recreation <br />facilities; improving conditions for fish and wildlife, and the generation and sale of electrical power <br />as an incident of the foregoing purposes." Public Law 90-537 and the program it sets forth provides <br />for further development of water resources in the basin consistent with the Colorado River Compact <br />and the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, but it does not alter the authorized purposes of the <br />Navajo Unit set forth by the CRSP Act or the Act of June 13, 1962. Also, the punctuation used in <br />the declaration of program purposes in section 102 of Public Law 90-537 reflects the intent of <br />Congress that fish and wildlife and power benefits be incidental 10 other specified uses of water. <br /> <br />Also, Public Law 85-624, the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act of 1958, provides that ..... wildlife <br />conservation shall receive equal consideration and be coordinated with other features of water- <br />resource development programs ...," and as such, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized "... to <br />provide assistance... in the development, protection,... of all species of wildlife, resources thereof, <br />and their habitat, .:." Section 2.(a) of Public Law 85-624 provides for consultation between an action <br />agency and the US Fish and Wildlife Service ..... with a view to the conservation of wildlife <br />resources by preventing loss of and damage to such resources as well as providing for the <br />development and improvement thereof ..... in connection with a proposed or authorized <br />impoundment, diversion, channeling, control or modification of any stream or water body by or <br />permitted by a federal agency. But, prevention or mitigation of impacts to environmental resources, <br />such as impacts to fish and wildlife, while constructing and operating a project for certain purposes <br />does not establish fish and wildlife as a purpose of or reason for the project. Further, section 2.(c) <br />of Public Law 85-624 provides that for projects authorized by a specific Act of Congress before <br />August 12, 1958, which includes Navajo Dam and Reservoir and the other CRSP units, the <br />modification to project structures and operations "... to accommodate means and measures for such <br />conservation of wildlife resources ... shall be compatible with the purposes for which the project was <br />authorized; ..." Thus, provisions for fish and wildlife benefits for the Navajo Unit clearly remain <br />incidental to the purposes authorized by the CRSP Act of 1956. <br /> <br />10 <br />