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<br />Program and providing the necessary certainty and assurances that the non-federal
<br />participants desire, There is some urgency in either reaching consensus on eacb of these
<br />issues, or, at a minimum, agreeing on a process for their resolution prior to the proposed
<br />submittal of the agency review draft of the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) along with
<br />the HCP Permit Application to the V,S, Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on Apri] ]6,
<br />2004, The April 16th deadline is important in order to keep the document approval
<br />process on track to bave the issuance of the Record of Decision by Secretary Norton in
<br />November of2004,
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<br />During several telephone conference calls between the federal and non-federal
<br />representatives, the non-federal representatives have developed a proposed concept for
<br />moving the process forward for the first five-year period of Program implementation
<br />while federal legislation is sought, the final terms of the federal and non-federal cost
<br />sharing arrangements are negotiated, and other outstanding issues are resolved, If the
<br />legislation is not obtained, and/or if the California Fully Protected Species issues cannot
<br />be satisfactorily resolved, and/or if the federallnon-federal cost-sharing agreements
<br />cannot be reached, the 50-year Program would have to be either renegotiated or
<br />terminated, This would result in the federal and non-federal entities utilizing different
<br />avenues for obtaining ESA and CESA compliance related to Lower Colorado River
<br />operations and activities,
<br />
<br />These important issues and potential strategies for moving the LCR MSCP
<br />forward were the topics of discussion at the Agency Managers' meeting on April 7th in
<br />Ontario, California. At this meeting, we discussed the current status of Program
<br />development and the status of the current federallnon-federal negotiations, The proposed
<br />"five-year period" concept was approved by the Agency Managers, The position of the
<br />Agency Managers was to continue to move the process forward by subrnitting the HCP
<br />Permit Application and the agency review drafts of the HCP, BA, and EISIR to the
<br />VSFWS by the April 16, 2004, deadline,
<br />
<br />The LCR MSCP Technical Contractors have largely completed finalizing the
<br />agency review drafts of the HCP, BA, and ElSIR in anticipation of submitting these
<br />documents to the VSFWS on April 16th, in conjunction with the HCP Permit Application;
<br />A draft letter is being prepared to accompany the draft documents and the HCP Permit
<br />Application, It is anticipated that representatives of the three Lower Division States
<br />would sign this letter. Additionally, it is anticipated that each of the agencies requesting
<br />long-term incidental take authorization pursuant to the terms of the proposed HCP would
<br />sign the HCP Permit Application, This, of course, recognizes that prior to execution of
<br />the LCR MSCP Implementing Agreement (IA), the governance documents, and any other
<br />LCR MSCP agreements that there would be resolution of all of the outstanding issues,
<br />including the federallnon-federal and inter- and intra-state cost sharing agreements, the
<br />CESA and Fully Protected Species issues, and the funding and assurance issues,
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<br />The Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, Bennett Raley, has indicated that
<br />a meeting of the federal and non-federal representatives, including him, will be scheduled
<br />toward the end of April in order to move these remaining significant issues forward, It is
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