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<br />MEMORANDUM Of UNDERSTANDING <br />BETWEEN THE <br />UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE <br />AND THE <br />COLORADO RIVER WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT <br /> <br />I. BackQround <br /> <br />In January 1988, the Secretary of the Interior, the Governors of Colorado, <br />Wyoming, and Utah, and the Administrator of the Western Area Power <br />Administration entered into a Cooperative Agreement to implement the Recovery <br />Implementation Program for Endangered fish Species in the Upper Colorado River <br />Basin (Recovery Program). The Cooperative Agreement also established an <br />Implementation Committee to oversee implementation of the Recovery Program by <br />the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service). The overall goal of the Recovery <br />Program is to recover and delist three endangered species (the Colorado <br />sQuawfish, hUllllback chub, and bony tail chub) and to manage the razorback suck.er <br />so that it would not need the protection of the Endangered Species Act. (These <br />four fish are referred to as the rare Colorado River fishes in this Memorandum <br />of Understanding (MQU)). A principal element of the Recovery Program is a <br />process for conducting Section 7 consultation in accordance with the Endangered <br />Species Act (ESA) on the impacts of water depletions to the rare Colorado River <br />fishes and for acquiring water and/or water rights to provide instream flows <br />for the rare Colorado River fishes. Under the Recovery Program, the depletion <br />impacts of water development projects are offset by: (a) recovery activities <br />partially funded by water projects proponents' financial contribution to the <br />Recovery Program; (b) legal protection of instream flows according to State <br />law: and (c) progress in other recovery program elements which results in <br />protection of habitat or enhancement of the natural populations of the listed <br />species. Accordingly, the Service has decided that it must determine that <br />progress under the Recovery Program is sufficient to offset impacts of a <br />depletion project before it will issue a favorable Biological Opinion. In the <br />, Biological Opinion on the Muddy Creek Project, the Service <br />concluded that progress under the Recovery Program had not been sufficient and <br />that an additional conservation measure was necessary to offset the depletion <br />impacts of the Muddy Creek. Project. That additional conservation measure is <br />described in this MOU. <br /> <br />This MOU represents a commitment to a process to provide flows for rare <br />Colorado River fishes in the reach of the main stem Colorado River from the <br />Grand Valley Irrigation Company Diversion Dam to the confluence with the <br />Gunnison River (15~le reach). These flows are being provided on an interim <br />basis until the Service determines that sufficient instream flows have been <br />acquired through the Recovery Program to offset the impacts of the Muddy Creek <br />