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o~QPPSMgNT OF TyFym <br />Yl 9 <br />O <br />~ a <br />9 <br />~4ACk 5. yea <br />IN REPLY REFER TO: <br />ES/CO: T&E <br />MS 65412 LK <br />Kathryn Cloutier <br />Greystone Environmental Consultants, Inc. <br />5231 South Quebec Street <br />Greenwood Village, Colorado 80111 <br />Dear Ms. Cloutier: <br />APR - 1 2005 <br />The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) received your letter of March 3, 2005, regarding the <br />Worthington Pit Gravel Mine expansion in Adams County, Colorado (Section 26, Township 1 <br />South, Range 67 West). You requested information regarding endangered and threatened species, <br />and other concerns we might have regarding expansion of the Worthington Pit. These comments <br />have been prepared under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Act), as amended <br />(16 U.S.C. 1531 et. seq.), and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) (16 U.S.C. 703 et. seq.). <br />Enclosed is a list of Federal endangered, threatened, proposed, and candidate species, by county, in <br />Colorado. The bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, is known to regularly use the South Platte <br />River corridor for feeding, night roosting, and increasingly, for nesting. The project is within the <br />Denver Block Clearance area for the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, Zapus hudsonius preblei, so <br />this species is unlikely to occur on the site. <br />Since 1978, the Service has consistently taken the position in its section 7 consultations that Federal <br />agency actions resulting in existing or new water depletions to the Platte River system may affect <br />the endangered whooping crane (Grus americana), endangered interior least tern (Sterna <br />antillarum), threatened piping plover (Charadrius melodus), endangered pallid sturgeon <br />(Scaphirhynchus albus), threatened bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), threatened western <br />prairie fringed orchid (Platanthera praeclara), and designated critical habitat for the whooping <br />crane and piping plover in the central Platte River in Nebraska. In general, depletions include <br />evaporative losses and/or consumptive use less return flows. Project elements that could be <br />associated with depletions to the Platte River system include, but are not limited to, ponds <br />(detentionlrecreation/Irrigation storage), lakes (recreation irrigation storage/municipal <br />storage/power generation), reservoirs (recreation/irrigation storage/municipal storage/power <br />generation), pipelines, wells, diversion structures, and water treatment facilities. <br />United States Department of the Interior <br />FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE <br />Ecological Services <br />755 Parfet Street, Suite 361 <br />Lakewood, Colorado 80215-5599 <br />