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6 funding component of the Recovery Program. Additionally, Reclamation contributes approximately $7 million annually for Capital Projects. However, to complete the actions described in this project description it will require the cost sharing by non-Federal partners, Capital Projects consist of construction of facilities and acquisition of land and water interests required to recover the endangered fish, These recovery actions are described below and in the most recent Recovery Action Plan (April 1,1999). The purpose of the Recovery Program and its Recovery Action Plan is to recover the four listed fish species and provide a means to avoid the likelihood of jeopardy and adverse modification of critical habitat for new and existing water projects, Recovery actions within the Recovery Program fall under five elements: I) habitat protection; 2) habitat development and maintenance; 3) native fish stocking; 4) nonnative fish control; and 5) research, monitoring, and data management. Recovery (downlisting and delisting under ESA) of the fish species is dependent upon implementation of Recovery Program elements in the various river basins (USFWS 1987), Recovery in a single river would not achieve full recovery of the species, rather full recovery is dependent on self-sustaining populations in various locations as described in the Recovery Plans for each species (USFWS 1990a, 1990b, 1991, 1998). The Recovery Program" . , . is intended to go considerably beyond offsetting water depletion impacts by providing for the full recovery of the four endangered fishes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, excluding the San Juan River Basin" (USFWS 1993), Under the Recovery Program, the Recovery Program Director.s office annually sends a request to all participants for recommended changes to the Recovery Program's Recovery Action Plan, These changes include revised due dates, additions and deletions of recovery actions, additional steps to complete a recovery action, or a change in the lead agency responsible for ensuring completion of a recovery action item. Once the recommended changes are received, they are consolidated and sent to the technical committees for review and recommendations, Justifications for making the change are also provided, The Recovery Program's Management Committee then prepares a recommendation for the Implementation Committee, based on input from the Program Director's office and the technical committees, Final changes to the Recovery Action Plan require consensus by all Implementation Committee members, If consensus is not reached on a proposed change, the subject item in the Recovery Action Plan remains unchanged, The Implementation Committee routinely makes changes to the schedule for completing recovery actions when the delay is due to uncontrollable circumstances. As described in the Federal action on page I, this biological opinion addresses certain Reclamation operations and new and existing depletions, and treats as interrelated certain otl,J.er depletions, Existing depletions, as of September 30, 1995, have been estimated by modeling, Model results show existing depletions to be approximately I-million acre-feet/year, This estimate is the approximate average annual depletion value modeled for water years 1975 to 1991. The minimum depletion value was approximately 877,000 acre-feet/year for 1983 and the maximum was approximately 1,172,000 acre-feet/year for 1978,