Reclamation Bureau February 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, and the Council on Environmental Quality's Regulations for Implementing the Procedural Provisions of NEPA, the Department of the Interior (Department), acting through the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), has prepared a draft environmental impact statement (Draft EIS) on the proposed adoption of specific Colorado River Lower Basin shortage guidelines and coordinated reservoir management strategies to address operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead, particularly under low reservoir conditions. This action is proposed in order to provide a greater degree of certainty to U.S. Colorado River water users and managers of the Colorado River Basin by providing detailed and objective guidelines for the operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead, thereby allowing water managers and water users in the Lower Basin to know when, and by how much, water deliveries will be reduced in drought and other low reservoir conditions. The Department proposes that these guidelines be interim in duration and extend through 2026. Cooperating agencies are the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service (NPS), the Western Area Power Administration (Western), and the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission.

The ``Criteria for Developing Refuge Water Management Plans'' (Refuge Criteria), as applied in the following areas, are now available for public comment. Gray Lodge Wildlife Area. The Refuge Criteria provides a common methodology, or standard, for efficient use of water by Federal Wildlife Refuges, State Wildlife Management Areas and Resource Conservation Districts that receive water under provisions of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA). They document the process and format by which Refuge Water Management Plans (Plans) should be prepared and submitted to Reclamation as part of the Refuge/District Water Supply Contracts and Memorandum of Agreements. The Refuge Criteria refers to Refuges, Wildlife Areas and Resource Conservation Districts as Refuges. Those Refuges that entered into water supply contracts with Reclamation, as a result of the CVPIA and subsequent Department of the Interior administrative review processes, are required to prepare Plans using the Refuge Criteria.

The Bureau of Reclamation published a notice in the Federal Register on December 30, 2005 (70 FR, 77425) informing the public of the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Red River Valley Water Supply Project. We are now notifying the public that Reclamation and the State of North Dakota have prepared a Supplemental DEIS in response to public comment and new information. It is now available for review and comment. The Supplemental DEIS provides new information and additional analyses related to water supply needs, water quality, Missouri River flow depletions, aquatic resources, social-economics, and the risk of transfer of potentially invasive species from the Missouri River into the Red River and Hudson Bay basins from potential treatment or conveyance failures. Alternatives considered in the 2005 DEIS have been revised, two have been eliminated from consideration, and a federally-preferred alternative has been identified in the Supplemental DEIS.