Final Programmatic Biological Opinion for Bureau of Reclamation's

5larger workgroup of interested parties in August of 1997. The workgroup included water users,environmental groups, and State and Federal agencies. This programmatic biological opinionrepresents the Service’s consideration of the Federal action described on page 1.Scope of the Biological OpinionThe Federal action described on page 1 is addressed in this biological opinion. This biologicalopinion addresses impacts related to water depletions that occur above the confluence with theGunnison River and impact critical habitat from Rifle to Lake Powell and recovery actionsdesigned to offset these impacts. Therefore, the subject recovery actions affect the ColoradoRiver between Rifle and Lake Powell. Impacts related to water depletions and recovery actions inthe Green River are addressed in the consultations for Flaming Gorge Dam and the DuchesneRiver. Programmatic consultations for the Gunnison and Yampa Rivers are planned to addresssimilar issues. Issuance of this programmatic biological opinion does not create an administrativepriority concerning Upper Colorado River Basin depletions. The opinion neither prejudices nordetermines the amount of depletions allowable under the Colorado River Compact or under theEndangered Species Act in other subbasins of the Upper Colorado River Basin.The Recovery Program does not cover direct physical impacts of new actions (projectsconstructed after January 22, 1988); effects of transbasin diversions on Platte River endangeredspecies; introduction of nonnative fish species; or discharges of pollutants and therefore, thisbiological opinion does not address such impacts. This biological opinion does not addressimpacts of future actions authorized by the participating Federal Agencies that are not associatedwith water depletions or operation of Reclamation facilities to carry out recovery actions.BIOLOGICAL OPINIONDESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ACTIONThe proposed action is described on page 1. The Reclamation projects included in thisconsultation are the past, existing, and continued operation of the Colorado-Big ThompsonProject, Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, Collbran Project, Grand Valley Project, and Silt Project,including all existing, historic, and authorized depletions associated with these projects. Theseprojects are operated in accordance with various laws and policies such as the authorizinglegislation for each project, operating policies, criteria, and principles, and various court decrees.For detailed descriptions of the physical features of each projects, see Appendix A.Non-Reclamation projects associated with the continuation of existing depletions and 120,000acre-feet/year of new depletions above the confluence with the Gunnison River which have or arelikely to have a Federal nexus are anticipated to choose to rely on the implementation of theRecovery Action Plan, which is the responsibility of all of the Program participants, to avoid thelikelihood of jeopardy and adverse modification of critical habitat. Therefore, this biologicalopinion is treating these projects as interrelated. The participating Federal Agencies contributeapproximately $3.3 million annually for implementation of recovery actions under the base