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l? United States Department of the Interior IN REPLY REFER TO: ES-6-RO-95-F-001-GJ399 TAILS 65413-2007-F-0263 Memorandum FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE Ecological Services 764 Horizon Drive, Building B Grand Junction, Colorado 81506-3946 0 7? ` JAN 0 4 2008 I t Division of Neclarnavon, December 19, 2007Mining and Safety To: Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement, Denver, Colorado Attention: Carl Johnston, Natural Resource Specialist Fro Wunction, estern Colorado Supervisor, Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecolo 1 Ser is and M? Colorado • I Subject: Minrec, Inc.'s Blue Ribbon Mine Final Biological Opinion 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 reviewed your September 25, 2007, correspondence regarding the impacts of the Blue Ribbon Mine Sedimentation Pond Project on endangered Colorado River fishes. The project is located in T. 13 S., R. 91 W., section 2 and T. 12 S., R. 91 W., section 35, Delta County, Colorado. The two sediment ponds covered by this biological opinion were created in 1982 or 1983 and are considered to be historic projects. The proposed action will cause a total average annual historic depletion of 0.57 acre-feet through evaporative loss 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 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 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 July 8, 1997, the Service issued an intra-Service biological opinion determining that the depletion fee for new project 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 fishes and to avoid destruction or adverse modification of their critical habitat by depletions of 100