United States Department of the Interior 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 

Washington, D.C. 20240 

JUL 1 8 2012 


To: 	 DOI Glen Canyon Leadership Team for High Flow Protocol (HFE) and Non-Native Fish 

Control (NNFC) 

From: 	Anne Castle, Chair, Glen Canyon Leadership Team /1 ~ 

Assistant Secretary - Water & Science L Q~ 

Re: 	 Implementation of Secretarial Directive and Revi# ofJuly 11, 2012 Meeting 

Date: 	 July 17, 2012 

I. 	 Background and Purpose 

Pursuant to Secretary Ken Salazar's May 23, 2012 Directive on the Implementation ofResearch 

to Improve Conditions in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon 

National Recreation Area (attached), I convened an initial meeting of the Leadership Team in 

Flagstaff, Arizona on July 11, 2012. Thanks very much to those ofyou who participated. 

Implementation ofthe HFE and NNFC programs are important new elements of the 

·Department's Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program. Together, these programs 

will provide the foundation to improve operations and benefit downstream resources and it is 

essential that Interior be prepared to effectively implement both programs. This memo 

summarizes the discussion and key conclusions among those in attendance to and provides a list 

ofupcoming tasks for the other agency representatives who will be working on implementation 

ofthe Secretarial Directive. 

During our initial meeting, we focused on ensuring effective and coordinated implementation of 

the HFE and NNFC Environmental Assessments. Our primary goal in this meeting was to 

ensure that the various Interior agencies (Reclamation, NPS, USGS, BIA, FWS), as well as the 

Western Area Power Administration (Western) ,

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are appropriately coordinating both our internal 

activities as well as our external coordination and consultation obligations with Native American 

Tribes, Colorado River Basin States, and other stakeholders as established under the HFE and 

NNFC decision documents. 

II. 	 Summary of Discussion - Key Points 

During our discussion we reviewed the key agency responsibilities that will be involved in 

implementation ofthe HFE and NNFC programs. Given the potential for the first high flow 

1 The July 11, 2012 meeting included representation from Western. Although Western is not a party to the 

leadership team envisioned in the Secretarial Directive, it has statutory responsibilities and interests in the Colorado 

River Storage Project system and its input was valuable to the leadership team in connection with the 

implementation ofthe HFE and NNFC. 

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release under the HFE protocol to occur this fall during the October/November window ifthe 

necessary conditions are present, the Leadership Team primarily focused on the necessary 

planning steps for the HFE during the July 11 meeting. 

The key points of our discussion were as follows: 

• 	 Each agency represented on the Leadership Team will have a represen~ative(s) on an 

interagency team of agency technical experts (Technical Committee), as required by the 

Secretarial Directive. 

• 	 These agency technical representatives will begin a series of meetings later this month in 

order to ensure that all of the relevant technical issues and implementation steps are 

identified, discussed among the affected agencies, and ultimately presented to the Leadership 

Team for consideration and decisionmaking. In order to minimize travel costs and ensure 

administrative efficiency, discussions among the technical representatives will be integrated, 

to the extent possible, with other ongoing operational coordination meetings and will occur 

via conference calls. 

• 	 The technical representatives will compile a list of documents that will need to be created 

and compiled in advance ofimplementation of a high flow release under the HFE Protocol. 

During our meeting we referred to this as a "notebook" or "operations manual" consisting of 

the key decision-support documents. The agency representatives will work together to 

identify the necessary documents (e.g., public safety/notifications, resource status review, 

checklist of consultation obligations, fact sheets, Q&As, press releases, etc.) and the officials 

responsible for preparation ofinitial drafts of each ofthe required documents. 

• 	 Lori Caramanian will serve as the key point of contact and liaison between the Leadership 

Team and the Technical Committee. Lori will be sending information to all members ofthe 

Leadership Team and the Technical Committee in coming days following up on this memo 

with additional detail outlining key next steps and priority tasks for the next few weeks. 

• 	 It is our understanding that the following individuals will serve as technical representatives 

on the Technical Committee for this effort: 

o 	 NPS: Mark Wondzell, Martha Hahn, Jan Balsom 

o 	 BOR: Glen Knowles, Dave Trueman, Nick Williams, Dennis Kubly 

o 	 USGS: Jack Schmidt 

o 	 FWS: Lesley Fitzpatrick 

o 	 BIA: Amy Hueslein 

o 	 SOL: Bob Snow 

• 	 Among the initial tasks for the Technical Committee, the following were discussed at our 

meeting: 

o 	 Identifying agency responsibilities, both agency-specific and shared 

responsibilities, including tribal consultation obligations. 

o 	 Identification and public dissemination ofthe sediment triggering conditions for 

implementation of a high flow release: USGS has been working on innovative 

web-based tools to track sediment conditions in the Paria and Colorado Rivers. 

The technical team will identify and recommend the appropriate information 

necessary for triggering and implementation of a high flow release (as well as 

ensuring public access to such information). See Part II. A. ofthe Secretarial 

Directive. 

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o 	 Ensuring appropriate coordination with Western in advance of a high flow 

release: Western will work in coming weeks to address the marketing of power 

resources during the 1-96 hour period of a high flow release. Western will ensure 

appropriate identification of reserve capacity during periods when Glen Canyon 

Dam is at peak generation status. 

o 	 Summary and status of affected resources: While the HFE decision documents 

contemplate preparation of an annual "status of affected resources," in January of 

each year, we concluded that it is appropriate to prepare this summary now, in 

advance of a potential Fall 2012 high flow release. Glen Knowles will provide a 

summary ofthe current resource conditions and circulate for review and input by 

the Glen Canyon Secretarial Directive team. Following review and input from the 

Technical Committee, the status ofresources will be reviewed by the Leadership 

Team in advance of any high flow release. 

o 	 Identification and tracking of the various consultation and public outreach 

requirements identified in the HFE and NNFC decision documents: A list of the 

source ofthe duty, as well as the time, place and participating agency for meeting 

each required outreach element should be captured in a single list. Bob Snow will 

circulate an initial list ofthese requirements to the technical team. See Part IL B. 

ofthe Secretarial Directive. 

o 	 Communication Plan: Members of the technical team will ensure that interagency 

development and review ofpublic outreach/public safety documents is completed 

and presented for review by the Leadership Team. It is anticipated that the 

Communications Plan will include Draft Press Releases, Q&As, Fact Sheets and 

other information sharing products, as well as logistics for the <lay of the HFE. 

Dave Uberuaga and Ann Gold will co-lead development ofthe Communications 

Plan. 

o 	 Post-HFE reporting and feedback: The technical team will develop a plan for 

post-HFE reporting on resource conditions/monitoring, changes and 

improvements. 

• 	 Coordination with GCDAMP Stakeholders: In future discussions, the Leadership Team will 

discuss coordination with other GCDAMP stakeholders prior to implementing a Fall HFE. It 

was decided that time will be devoted to this topic at the upcoming August AMWG meeting, 

in addition to any appropriate follow-up after the AMWG meeting, assuming that there is 

sufficient sediment to conduct a high flow release. Consistent with the HFE decision 

documents, engagement with the GCDAMP stakeholders will occur prior to any final 

Departmental decision to proceed with a HFE. 

III. Next Steps 

There are a tremendous number of details that will need to be coordinated and it is critically 

important that we establish clear documentation of our efforts so as to ensure that the 

implementation ofthis multi-year undertaking gets off to a successful start. The Technical Team 

should schedule a conference call to discuss next steps and priority tasks in anticipation of 

providing recommendations to the Leadership Team at its next in-person meeting, which will be 

in Flagstaff on August 28, 2012. Thank you all for you and your staffs continued commitment 

to making this important initiative a success. 

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