1997-1998 Annual Report
Appendix III
Interstate Stream Commission-Review of Endangered Species Issues
Inside Appendix III
The Endangered Species Act requires that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designate wildlife and plants that are in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of their range as endangered. Species likely to become endangered in the forseeable future are to be listed as threatened.
Basis of listing: The determination of endangered or threatened status should be based solely on the best scientific and commercial data available on the species and the efforts being made by other governments to protect the species. The Service considers such factors as: present or threatened destruction, modification or curtailment of habitat or range; overutilization of the species; disease and predation; inadequacy of existing regulatory protection; and other threats.
Recovery Plans: The Service develops and implements recovery plans for listed species. Recovery teams include members of federal, state and local water agencies as well as members of the scientific and citizen community.
Critical Habitat: The Act directs U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for endangered and threatened species when "prudent and determinable." The specific areas in the range of the species with the physical or biological features essential to the species' conservation which may require special managementspace for growth and normal behavior; water, air, light, minerals or other nutritional or physiological requirements; cover or shelter; and sites for breeding and rearing offspring--should be designated as critical habitat.
Interagency Cooperation: Section 7 of the Act concerns Interagency Cooperation, and requires each federal agency to consult with the Service to ensure that no action the agency might carry out, authorize, or fund is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of a listed species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of its critical habitat unless the agency is granted an exemption. After a formal consultation, Fish and Wildlife issues a Biological Opinion as to whether the action will put the species in jeopardy. If a "jeopardy" conclusion is reached, Fish and Wildlife works with the involved agency to develop "reasonable and prudent alternatives" so the project can go forward.
In November 1992 Governor Bruce King signed the Cooperative Agreement for New Mexico to participate in the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program (Implementation Program) to recover endangered fish species in the San Juan River basin.
The Implementation Program's dual goals are to conserve populations of Colorado squawfish and razorback sucker in the basin and to proceed with water development in the basin. Staff from both the N.M. Game and Fish Department and the Interstate Stream Commission participate in Implementation Program activities; other participants include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Bureau of Reclamation; Bureau of Indian Affairs; Bureau of Land Management; State of Colorado; the Southern Ute, Ute Mountain, Ute and Jicarilla Indian Tribes; the Navajo Nation; and water development interests.
Effective April 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated critical habitat for the Colorado squawfish and the razorback sucker. The designated habitat included the reach of the San Juan River in New Mexico from Farmington to the Four Corners for the Colorado squawfish and from the Hogback to the Four Corners for the razorback sucker. The designation of critical habitat should not affect the Implementation Program because recovery of the species would include protection of needed habitat.
During the report period, the Implementation Program's Biology Committee conducted research, collected field data, developed a budget for the Program's long-range plan, and worked on draft recommendations for San Juan River flows to benefit endangered fish and for operating rules for Navajo Dam to meet the recommended flows. At the close of the fiscal year, the Biology Committee had not completed its draft report setting forth the flow recommendations. The recommendations may influence or inhibit further water development in the basin.
The Biology Committee also has tentatively identified a need for capital works to recover the endangered fish in the San Juan River, at an estimated cost of about $18 million. These works include: fish propagation and rearing facilities, fish passage structures at diversion dams, fish screens on diversions, and physical habitat or channel modifications. In March 1998, a bill was introduced in Congress to provide for federal and other funding to implement both these capital works and similar capital works to recover endangered fish in other regions of the Upper Colorado River basin. The bill did not reach the Senate floor during the report period.
A Section 7 consultation on the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (NIIP) between U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Blocks 1 through 8 of the irrigation project was finalized in October, 1991. The resulting final biological opinion allows for continued construction of Block 8 with the following conditions:
1) Irrigation in Blocks 1 through 6 is limited to 50,151 acres; 2) 16,420 acre-feet of presently unused depletion from Hogback and Fruitland projects be transferred to NIIP; 3) A minimum of 8,000 acres of conservation reserve acreage be maintained; 4) Project depletions are limited to 149,420 acre-feet; 5) Dilution water be provided during the irrigation season in Gallegos Canyon and Ojo Amarillo to maintain selenium concentrations below 5 ug/l; 6) A monitoring program be established to determine the effects of the dilution program and track selenium levels in the river; and 7) BIA participates in the San Juan River Recovery Implementation Program for two endangered fish.
A similar Section 7 consultation for construction of Blocks 9 through 11 and for full irrigation of Blocks 1 through 8, with return of transferred water back to the Hogback and Fruitland projects, was requested on December 11, 1991. Completion of the consultation is postponed until sufficient data are available from the Recovery Implementation Program.
In 1986, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the spike dace and the loach minnow as threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, and in 1994 the Service designated 202 miles of the Gila River and its tributaries in New Mexico and Arizona as critical habitat for the two threatened fish. See the section on Upper Gila Water Supply Study in Appendix II for more detail.
On August 19, 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the Rio Grande silvery minnow an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. This fish is found only in the middle Rio Grande from Cochiti Dam downstream to the headwaters of Elephant Butte Reservoir. The Service believes that threats to the fish include dewatering, channelization and regulation of river flow to provide water for irrigation; diminished water quality caused by municipal, industrial and agricultural discharges; and competition or predation by introduced fish species.
The Fish and Wildlife Service also proposes to designate critical habitat for the silvery minnow as the Rio Grande from the State highway 22 bridge immediately below Cochiti Dam extending south about 163 miles to the Santa Fe railroad bridge across the Rio Grande near San Marcial.
On March 21, 1995, the Fish and Wildlife Service appointed a team of scientists and stakeholder interests to develop a plan to recover the silvery minnow. Staff of the ISC participate on the recovery team. A draft of the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Recovery Plan was developed in 1997 and is currently being finalized.
On August 5, 1991, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a biological opinion finding that operation of the Pecos River reservoirs by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation harmed the Pecos bluntnose shiner (Notropis simus pecosensis) which is federally protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. In a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the Carlsbad Irrigation District dated January 13, 1992, Reclamation agreed to fund a five-year study by the Service and the Department to determine the biologic and hydrologic needs of the Pecos bluntnose shiner and to develop a water budgeting hydrology model based on daily flows for the reach of the Pecos River from Santa Rosa Dam downstream to the headwaters of the Brantley Reservoir. The research under the MOU ended in 1996 and the MOU was extended in February of 1997 for the purpose of completing data analysis, interpretation of results and management recommendations. The Office of the State Engineer joined the extended MOU. The final report is expected to be completed in 1998.
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