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  • Tribal interests represented on Missouri River committee

    The Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee (MRRIC) met here Nov. 15-17 to receive an overview of the Missouri River Recovery Program’s (MRRP) draft Missouri River Recovery Management Plan-Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), scheduled for public release in December, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). Tribes were represented by Dr. Emerson Bullchief, Crow Nation; Dr. Andrea Hunter, Osage Nation; Dr. Kelly Morgan, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe; Alan Kelley, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska; Elizabeth Wakeman, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe; Reno Red Cloud, Oglala Sioux Tribe; and Shannon Wright, Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.
  • Missouri River committee prepares for draft EIS release

    The Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee (MRRIC) met here Nov. 15-17 to receive an overview of the Missouri River Recovery Program’s (MRRP) draft Missouri River Recovery Management Plan-Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), scheduled for public release in December, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). The EIS describes management actions intended to ensure that operations of the Missouri River system will not jeopardize three species listed under the Endangered Species Act. The committee heard reports from its two expert advisory panels on the technical soundness of sections of the EIS. There was strong emphasis on models that identify the economic impacts of various alternative management strategies being considered by the Corps. They use these models to help determine a preferred alternative.
  • Federal Agencies to Host Two Webinars December 13 for Columbia River System Operations EIS

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and Bonneville Power Administration will host two public scoping webinars December 13 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and 3 to 4:30 p.m. PST on the operation of 14 federal hydropower projects in the Columbia River Basin.
  • Statement Regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline

    Washington, D.C. – Today, the Army informed the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Energy Transfer Partners, and Dakota Access, LLC, that it has completed the review that it launched on September 9, 2016. The Army has determined that additional discussion and analysis are warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nation’s dispossessions of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the Tribe, our government-to-government relationship, and the statute governing easements through government property.
  • Federal Agencies to hold nine more scoping meetings for Columbia River System Operations EIS

    About 300 people attended one of seven scoping meetings regarding the operation of 14 federal hydropower projects in the Columbia Basin. Nine more meetings and two webinars will be convened before the public comment period closes January 17, 2017, on the Columbia River System Operations (CRSO) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
  • Above average Missouri Basin runoff in October, reduction to winter release rates to occur in late November

    Runoff in the Missouri River Basin above Sioux City, Iowa, was 1.9 million acre feet (MAF) during October, 155 percent of average, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). The 2016 calendar year runoff forecast is 24.1 MAF, 95 percent of average. Average annual runoff is 25.3 MAF. The total volume of water stored in the Mainstem Reservoir System on November 1 was 57.2 MAF, occupying 1.1 MAF of the 16.3 MAF combined flood control storage zones. “System storage declined less than anticipated during October, only 0.2 MAF, as a result of heavy rainfall over north central Montana and northwestern Wyoming. During the remainder of fall and winter, we will complete the evacuation of the flood zones of the reservoirs to ensure we start next year’s runoff season with the full flood control capacity of the system available,” said Jody Farhat, chief of the Corps’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Division.