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Dear Ms. Pacula: <br />United States Department of the Interior <br />IN REPLY REFER TO: <br />ES- 6- RO -95 -F- 001 -GJ419 <br />TAILS 06E24100- 2012 -F -0142 <br />Dawn S. Pacula, Natural Resource Specialist <br />Office of Surface Mining <br />Reclamation and Enforcement <br />1999 Broadway, Suite 3320 <br />Denver, Colorado 80202 -3050 <br />FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE <br />Ecological Services <br />764 Horizon Drive, Building B <br />Grand Junction, Colorado 81506 -3946 <br />April 9, 2012 <br />Included in the Recovery Program was the requirement that a depletion fee would be paid by <br />water users to help support the Recovery Program. On June 4, 2010, the Service re- issued an <br />intra - Service biological opinion (BO) determining that the depletion fee for depletions of 100 <br />acre -feet or less are no longer required because the Recovery Program has made sufficient <br />progress toward recovery to serve as Conservation Measures (formally reasonable and prudent <br />alternatives) for new and historic project depletions of 100 acre -feet or less. Therefore, the <br />depletion fee for this project is waived and further consultation is not required. <br />In accordance with section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), as amended (16 <br />U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), and the Interagency Cooperation Regulations (50 CFR 402), the Fish and <br />Wildlife Service (Service) reviewed your March 13, 2012, correspondence regarding the impacts <br />of the New Horizon North Mine Project on endangered Colorado River fishes. The project is <br />located 2.5 miles northwest of Nucla, Montrose County, Colorado. The proposed action will <br />cause an average annual depletion of 42.33 acre -feet to the San Miguel River in the Upper <br />Colorado River Basin. <br />A Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River <br />Basin was initiated on January 22, 1988. The Recovery Program was intended to be the <br />reasonable and prudent alternative to avoid jeopardy and destruction or adverse modification of <br />critical habitat to the endangered fishes caused by depletions from the Upper Colorado River <br />Basin. In order to further define and clarify the process of the Recovery Program, a section 7 <br />agreement was implemented on October 15, 1993, by the Recovery Program participants. <br />Incorporated into this agreement is a Recovery Implementation Program Recovery Action Plan <br />which identifies actions currently believed to be required to recover the endangered fishes in the <br />most expeditious manner. <br />