Our office is primarily responsible for a recovery evaluation of Columbia River aquatic resources, which include sturgeon, bull trout, and salmon. The service is conducting a consultation on the operation of federally owned hydropower facilities on the Columbia, Snake, Clearwater, Kootenai rivers in the Columbia River Basin. We're consulting with the action agencies of the Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration and Bureau of Reclamation. At issue are the effects of operating the Federal Hydropower System on the Endangered Kootenai River sturgeon, threatened bull trout, and to some limited degree, bald eagles.
The service received two biological assessments from the agencies, a draft document in the summer of 1999, and a final in December of 1999. We shared a preliminary draft of the opinion with these agencies in May of 2000, and the comments on the preliminary draft opinion were received June 2000. The draft opinion was released to the states and tribes for comment on July 27 of 2000.
Throughout this process the emphasis has been placed on the discussion of key issues including minimization of adverse effects to sturgeon and bull trout from the PS operations in the Upper Columbia River. Our draft opinion requests adjustments to the operations and ramping rates at Hungry Horse, Libby, and Albany Falls dams. We're also asking the Army Corps of Engineers to continue studies of alternative pool elevations Albany Falls to benefit kokanee salmon, a key food source for bull trout in Lake Pend Oreille.
The draft opinion also addresses actions at Libby Dam to allow increase flows to chief flow objectives for sturgeon. For the Lower Columbia River, Snake River, and Clearwater River, the service will require monitoring to better determine the presence of bull trout and ensure their upstream and downstream passage is not impeded. The services work closely with National Marine Fisheries Service throughout this process to ensure that the Federal Hydro System operations benefit sturgeon, bull trout, and do not conflict with salmon and steelhead.
We are presently revising the biological opinion based on comments we received from the states, tribes, and other affected entities. We are now completing the opinion and accompanying documents and anticipate to have a final draft out by mid-December.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony, and I'll be happy to answer any of your questions that you and the members have. Thanks. This is a summary of Mr. Cottingham's comments from September.