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.',;", ,~"1 ,r: Appendix IV Development of a Reasonable and Prudent Alternative ," by releasing additional water from the Navajo Dam and Reservow for the squawfish. Development of an Acceptable Alternative During July 1990, the Bureau and the Service infonnal1y discussed the possibility of formulating an alternative that would allow construction of the project to proceed, according to a briefing statement subsequently prepared by the Service. The Bureau proposed a fourth alternative that combined elements of the three previously rejected alternatives. This alternative included a fish management plan on the San Juan River, a 5-year study to identify and evaluate the needs of the Colorado squawfish, water releases of up to 300,000 acre-feet (in 2 of the 5 years) from the Navajo Dam and Reservoir, and construction of the Animas-La Plata project concurrently with the study. The Service rejected this proposed alternative as being essentially the same as those already rejected, maintaining that the best available scientific data led to the conclusion that (1) any further reductions in flow in the SanJuan River would likely jeopardize the endangered fish and (2) field studies were needed to provide better infonnation. ',"I , The Service then offered to explore an alternative allowing the first phase of the project to be constructed and 50,000 acre-feet of water to be annually depleted from the Animas River to allow the Colorado Ute Indians' water settlement to proceed. An Assistant Regional Director for the Bureau told us that the Bureau and the Service began to develop the alternative at the request of the Secretary of the Interior. According to this official, the agencies held a series of meetings looking for middle ground between the need to preserve the endangered species and the need to comply with the 1988 Settlement Act's mandate to build the project. Regional hydrologists for the Service told us they believed that the Bureau wanted to start construction on the project before the fish studies were complete because of the settlement's deadline for constructing the first phase of the project. The proposed alternative was discussed during an August 1990 meeting of the then-Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau, the head of the Bureau's Durango Projects Office, an Assistant Regional Director for the Service, and other staff from both agencies. The former Assistant Commissioner told us his efforts at this meeting were based on satisfying two commitments: (1) protecting the Colorado squawfish and (2) meeting the lThe Navajo Dam and Reservoir stores water used by the Na~o Indian Irrigation Project (NllP), a congressionally authorized project on the San Juan River that has been partially constructed App. V provides additional infonnation on NIIP. Page 19 GAOIRCED-96-1 AniDwI-La Plata Projeet