OCR Text |
Show The Bureau of Reclamation is also involved in the water development and conservation programs. Salinity control studies on the Colorado River and water quality improvement programs are now underway. Precipitation management and weather modification is an ever increasing segment of the reclamation program. Total water management involving the inflow, outflow, import and export of water, groundwater, surface water, and all other water uses or reuses within a system is being studied and implemented. A geothermal development program is being implemented and although considered to be a Department of Interior program with several Federal agencies involved such as USGS, BLM, and OSW, the Bureau of Reclamation has responsibility for determining the feasibility of a system for producing and. delivering desalted geothermal water. Hydropower, flood control, fish and wildlife protection and enhancement, recreation, and improvement of environmental quality of life are all still vital aspects of reclamation multi- purpose projects. Issue 19: The draft environmental statement failed to treat reservoir fisheries and stream fisheries as separate entities.. Issue raised by: Utah State Department of Natural Resources Utah Environmental Center Forest Service National Wildlife Federation Utah Audubon Society and several individuals ( a) Reservoir and stream fishing are separate facets of the sport of angling and as such have unique values. In r evaluating the effects of the proposed Bonneville Unit upon the fishery resource streams and reservoirs cannot be treated equally. ( b) The Bonneville Unit would create an imbalance in the State of Utah's fishery resource in favor of reservoir fishing. Response: ( a) It is recognized that reservoir fisheries and stream fisheries are separate entities and the final environmental statement has been modified to treat them as such. Under the discussions of cumulative effects of the Unit upon fish, esthetics, and recreation in Section C, stream and reservoir impacts have been treated separately. ( b) The Bureau of Reclamation acknowledges that construction and operation of the Bonneville Unit would alter the existing halance between reservoir fishing and stream fishing. This situation, as determined by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, is shown in Section C, 672 |