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has the potential to stipulate actions outside the Council's 

 planning framework. This means that agencies' implementation of 

 the Council's plan will be carried out with due recognition being 

 given to the agencies responsibilities under the ESA. 



Timeliness of Federal Agency Implementation 



Your second question asks if implementation of the Strategy 

 for Salmon is on track for timely completion and whether the 

 Federal agencies are coordinating their activities with each 

 other and with the Council to achieve timely implementation. The 

 Council's fish and wildlife program has set out a number of 

 planning, design, construction and operations measures for Corps 

 implementation. The Corps has worked closely with the Council 

 and the other Federal agencies to address those measures. For 

 example, the Council has called upon the Corps to continue 

 construction of juvenile fish bypass and transportation 

 facilities at Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and 

 Ice Harbor on the Snake River, and McNary and The Dalles on the 

 Columbia River. This includes the design, construction and 

 installation of new state-of-the-art fish screens at key projects 

 to divert most juvenile fish away from the turbines. This has 

 been an engineering challenge. However, a newly designed screen 

 concept has been successfully built and tested. We are now 

 scheduled to have the new screens installed and other 

 improvements made at Lower Granite, Little Goose and McNary Dam 

 bypass facilities by 1996. New juvenile fish bypass and 

 collection facilities at Lower Monumental Dam became fully 

 operational in April 1993. New bypass facilities are scheduled 

 to be completed at Ice Harbor Dam by 1996, and at The Dalles by 

 1998. The Council's plan has also called upon the Corps to 

 transport juvenile fish, to carry out fish passage research, and 

 to improve adult salmon passage conditions. In all cases we are 

 fully implementing those measures. More recently, we are 

 conducting the Snake River drawdown planning and testing as 

 called for in the Council's recent amendments. This complex 

 effort is being carried out jointly with the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service and is being coordinated with other Federal 

 agencies, the states, Indian tribes and regional interests. The 

 effort will require a longer period of time than originally 

 envisioned in the Council's program in order to accommodate the 

 extensive environmental processes, engineering considerations, 

 and biological studies and analyses. We are working closely with 

 the Council and its Drawdown Committee to ensure a full 

 understanding of schedules and activities as we implement this 

 measure. 



Changes in Water Management 



In response to your question on what can be done to 

 facilitate water conservation and other changes in regional water 

 management to provide increased flows for power production and 

 salmon recovery, the Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power 

 Administration and the Bureau of Reclamation are currently 



