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No Congressional action for changes in authority would be required for this alternative. 



3.3.1.2 Ctecisionmaking Options: Decisionmaking by a Federal Consultation Forum 



The term "Federal Consultation Forum" is used here to include the SOR agencies and 

 other Federal agencies with jurisdiction. At the present time, this would include the 

 SOR agencies and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish & 

 Wildlife Service, who have jurisdiction as a result of their responsibilities under the 

 Endangered Spedes Act (ESA). The intent of this option is that the five agencies would 

 act as a consultative decisionmaking group, much as the SOR agencies have throughout 

 the SOR study. The five agencies would need to negotiate a single decisionmaking 

 process that would consider all the demands on the river as part of the same 

 decisionmaking or planning cycle. 



At the present time there is a significant disconnect between the planiung process in 

 which the SOR agencies engage to guide river operations and the decisionmaking 

 process under the ESA. ESA requirements are set up under a separate legislative 

 mandate, and the ESA agencies are required to give primary consideration to protecting 

 the species, not economics. The timing of ESA decisions is often very short, based on 

 the actual water in the river, and can preempt prior planning by the SOR agencies. 

 Also, since there are different endangered spedes, with different agendes concerned 

 about them, it is even possible to imagine a scenario in which the requirements from the 

 ESA agendes could be contradictory or mutually exdusive, e.g. water withdrawals 

 ordered to protect one spedes could hurt another. 



Final Draft - September 15, 1993 50 



