GENERAL51110

• Permit No: C1980007
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Date: 11/21/1995
• Doc Name: Decision Doc for Federal Lease COC-56447
• From: BLM
• To: OSM RECLAMATION AND ENFORCEMENT
• Permit Index Doc Type: Other Permits
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

United States Department of the Interior
•
IN REPLY REFER TO
ES-6-RO-95-F-001-GJ91
MS 65412 GJ
95
Memorandum
FISH AND V('1LDLIFE SERVICE
Ecological Services
W'cs rcrn Colorado Offcc
'64 Horizon Drive South Mnca .4
Grand Junction, Colorado 815063`14(
October 31, 1995
To: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Denver,
Colorado (Attention Greg Reed)
From: Assistant Field Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Ecological Services, Grand Junction, Colorado
Subject: West Elk Mine's Apache Rocks Permit Revision No. 6 and Technical
Revision No. 77 Project
In accordance with section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as
• amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), and the Interagency Cooperation Regulations
(50 CFR 402), the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) reviewed your
October 12, 1995, correspondence regarding the impacts of West Elk Mine's
Apache Rocks Permit Revision No. 06 and Technical Revision No. 77 project on
endangered Colorado River fishes. The project is located in T. 13 S.,
R. 90 and 91 W., Gunnison and Delta County, Colorado. The proposed action
will cause an average annual depletion of 76.4 acre-feet to the North Fork of
the Gunnison River in the Upper Colorado River Basin.
A Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper
Colorado River Basin (Recovery Program) was initiated on January 22, 1988.
The Recovery Program was intended to be the reasonable and prudent alternative
to avoid jeopardy to the endangered fishes by depletions from the Upper
Colorado River Basin.
In order to further define and clarify the process in the Recovery Program, a
section 7 agreement was implemented on October 15, 1993, by the Recovery
Program participants. Incorporated into this agreement is a Recovery
Implementation Program Recovery Action Plan (Plan) which identifies actions
currently believed to be required to recover the endangered fishes in the most
expeditious manner.
Included in the Recovery Program was the requirement that a depletion fee
would be paid to help support the Recovery Program. On March 5, 1995, the
Service issued an intra-Service biological opinion determining that the
depletion fee for depletions of 100 acre-feet or less are no longer required
• because the Recovery Program has made sufficient progress to be the reasonable
and prudent alternative to avoid the likelihood of jeopardy to the endangered