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2 In keeping with the Secretary of the Interior's trust responsibility to the Indian tribes of the San Juan River Basin, the Bureau of Indian Affairs requested to be a party to the formal Section 7 consultation process (memorandum dated December 21, 1990). After interagency discussions with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Reclamation and the Service agreed that it would be appropriate for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be party to the formal consultation process. The Bureau of Indian Affairs requested that Reclamation assume the role as the lead Federal Agency. On May 7, 1990, the Service issued a draft biological opinion concluding that the Project would jeopardize the continued existence of the Colorado squawfish. No reasonable and prudent alternatives were identified at that time, Since then, Reclamation and the Service have been actively seeking reasonable and prudent alternatives. Reclamation's March 4, 1991, letter proposed a reasonable and prudent alternative to preclude the likelihood of jeopardy from the Project. In accordance with Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and the Interagency Cooperation Regulations (50 CFR 402 et seq.), this transmits the Service's biological opinion for the Project on federally listed endangered species. While Region 6 assumed the lead for this updated consultation, recommendations contained herein have the concurrence of the Regional Director of Region 2 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Backaround Existing water developments have redistributed and reduced streamf10ws in the San Juan River to a critical level for the endangered fish. Most of these have not gone through Section 7 consultation, At the current level of development, avera~e annual flows at Bluff, Utah, already have been depleted by 27 percent, Further depletions associated with the Project would raise that figure to 34 percent. By comparison, the Green and Colorado Rivers have been depleted approximately 20 percent (at Green River) and 32 percent (at CiSCD), respectively, The Project has been in the planning process since the early 1960's and resulted in the preparation of a Definite Plan Report in 1979. At that time, Region 2 entered into formal Section 7 consultation with Reclamation and rendered a biological opinion on December 2B, 1979 (2-2-BO-F-13), The 1979 biological opinion concerned the potential effects of the proposed Project on the endangered Colorado squawfish (Ptvchocheilus lucius), bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucoceDhalus), and peregrine falcon (Falco Derearinus). Based on the capture of a single juvenile Colorado squawfish in the San Juan River at the mouth of McE1mo Creek near Aneth, Utah, it was concluded that ". . . the proposed project is likely to further degrade the San Juan River to a point that this population will be lost. However, because of the apparent small size of the San Juan River squawfish population and its already tenuous hold on survival, its possible loss should have little impact on the successfully reproducing Green and Colorado Rivers squawfish populations and, therefore, the species itself,"