36274 Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 128 / Tuesday, July 6, 1999 / Rules and Regulations applicable to a broad range of business chargeable to the demonstration project. Cochiti Dam downstream to the activity. Indirect administrative costs associated with headwaters of Elephant Butte Reservoir, (c) Certification of Accounting Statement the demonstration project will be allocated to New Mexico, approximately five Accuracy. (1) The Carrier shall certify the the demonstration project based on the percent of its known historical range. annual accounting statement in the form set percentage obtained by dividing the dollar forth in paragraph (c)(3) of this clause. The amount of claims processed under the Critical habitat overlays this last Carrier's chief executive officer and the chief demonstration project by the total claims remaining portion of occupied range. It financial officer shall sign the certificate. processed for FEHB Program activity. This encompasses 262 kilometers (km) (163 (2) The Carrier shall require an authorized same percentage will also be used to miles (mi)) of the mainstem Rio Grande agent of its underwriter, if any, also to certify determine the amount of the Carrier's service from the downstream side of the State the annual accounting statement. charge that will be allocated to the Highway 22 bridge crossing the Rio (3) The certificate required shall be in the demonstration project. Grande immediately downstream of following form: (2) The Carrier shall submit a separate Cochiti Dam, to the crossing of the Certification of Accounting Statement annual accounting statement and monthly Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Accuracy incurred claims report for demonstration project experience. near San Marcial, New Mexico. This is to certify that I have reviewed this (End of Clause) EFFECTIVE DATES: This rule becomes accounting statement and to the best of my effective August 5, 1999. knowledge and belief: 7. Section 1652.232±71 is amended by ADDRESSES: You may inspect the 1. The statement was prepared in removing ``(Jan. 1999)'' from the clause complete file for this rule at the U.S. conformity with the guidelines issued by the heading and adding in its place ``(JAN Office of Personnel Management and fairly Fish and Wildlife Service, New Mexico 2000),'' and adding a new paragraph (f) Ecological Services Field Office, 2105 presents the financial results of this reporting to read as follows: period in conformity with those guidelines. Osuna NE., Albuquerque, New Mexico 2. The costs included in the statement are 1652.232±71 PaymentsÐexperience-rated 87113, by appointment, during normal actual, allowable, allocable, and reasonable contracts. business hours at the above address. in accordance with the terms of the contract FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: and with the cost principles of the Federal * * * * * Employees Health Benefits Acquisition (f) Exception for the 3-Year DoD Field Supervisor, New Mexico Regulation and the Federal Acquisition Demonstration Project (10 U.S.C. 1108). Ecological Services Field Office (See Regulation. The Carrier will perform a final ADDRESSES above). 3. Income, rebates, allowances, refunds and reconciliation of revenue and costs for SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: other credits made or owed in accordance the demonstration project group at the Background with the terms of the contract and applicable end of the demonstration project. Costs cost principles have been included in the in excess of the premiums will be The Rio Grande silvery minnow is statement. reimbursed first from the Carrier's one of seven species in the genus 4. If applicable, the letter of credit account Hybognathus found in the United States was managed in accordance with 5 CFR part demonstration project Contingency 890, 48 CFR chapter 16, and OPM guidelines. Reserve and then from OPM's (Pflieger 1980). The species was first Carrier Name: llllllllllllll Administrative Reserve. Any surplus described by Girard (1856) from lllllllllllllllllllll after the final accounting will be paid by specimens taken from the Rio Grande Name of Chief Executive Officer: the Carrier to OPM's Administrative near Fort Brown, Cameron County, (Type or Print) Reserve. Texas. It is a stout silvery minnow with lllllllllllllllllllll moderately small eyes and a small, (End of Clause) Name of Chief Financial Officer: slightly oblique mouth. Adults may lllllllllllllllllllll [FR Doc. 99±16913 Filed 7±2±99; 8:45 am] reach 90 millimeters (mm) (3.5 inches Signature of Chief Executive Officer: BILLING CODE 6325±01±U (in)) in total length (Sublette et al. 1990). lllllllllllllllllllll Its dorsal fin is distinctly pointed with Signature of Chief Financial Officer: the front of it located slightly closer to lllllllllllllllllllll DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR the tip of the snout than to the base of Date Signed: the tail. Life color is silver with emerald lllllllllllllllllllll Fish and Wildlife Service reflections. Its belly is silvery white; fins Date Signed: are plain; and barbels are absent lllllllllllllllllllll 50 CFR Part 17 (Sublette et al. 1990). This species was historically one of Underwriter: llllllllllllll Endangered and Threatened Wildlife the most abundant and widespread Name and Title of Responsible Corporate and Plants; Final Designation of fishes in the Rio Grande Basin, Official: Critical Habitat for the Rio Grande (Type or Print:) lllllllllllll occurring from Espanola, New Mexico, Silvery Minnow Signature of Responsible Corporate Official: to the Gulf of Mexico (Bestgen and lllllllllllllllllllll AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Platania 1991). It was also found in the Date Signed: llllllllllllll Interior. Pecos River, a major tributary of the Rio (End of Certificate) ACTION: Final rule. Grande, from Santa Rosa, New Mexico, (d) Exceptions for the 3-Year DoD downstream to its confluence with the Demonstration Project (10 U.S.C. 1108). SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Rio Grande (Pflieger 1980). It is (1) The Carrier shall draw funds from its Wildlife Service (Service), designate completely extirpated from the Pecos Letter of Credit (LOC) account to pay critical habitat for the Rio Grande River and from the Rio Grande demonstration project benefits costs in the silvery minnow (Hybognathus amarus), downstream of Elephant Butte Reservoir same manner as it does for benefits costs a species federally listed as endangered (Bestgen and Platania 1991). incurred by regular FEHB members. The Carrier shall account separately for health under the authority of the Endangered Throughout much of its historical range, benefits charges paid using demonstration Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). decline of the silvery minnow may be project funds and regular FEHB funds. Direct This species, also referred to herein as attributed to modification of stream administrative costs attributable solely to the silvery minnow or minnow, presently discharge patterns and channel drying demonstration project shall be fully occurs only in the Rio Grande from because of impoundments, water Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 128 / Tuesday, July 6, 1999 / Rules and Regulations 36275 diversion for agriculture, and stream extremely vulnerable to a single Furthermore, because the river is an channelization (Cook et al. 1992; naturally occurring chance event. The aggrading system below San Acacia (i.e,. Bestgen and Platania 1991). minnow prefers shallow waters with a the river bottom is rising due to In the Pecos River, the silvery sandy and silty substrate that is sedimentation), the bed of the river is Minnow was replaced by the closely generally associated with a meandering now perched above the bed of the 80 km related, introducted plains minnow (H. river that includes sidebars, oxbows, (50 mile) low flow conveyance channel, placitus) (Hatch et al. 1985; Bestgen et and backwaters. However, physical which is immediately adjacent and al. 1989; Cook et al. 1992). It is believed modifications to the Rio Grande over the parallel to the river channel. Because of the plains minnow was introduced into last century, including the construction this physical configuration, waters in the Pecos drainage during 1968, of dams and channelization of the the mainstem of the river tend to be probably the result of the release of mainstem, have altered much of the drained into the low flow conveyance ``bait minnows'' that were collected historical habitat for the minnow. channel. from the Arkansas River drainage. The Channelization has straightened and Seventy percent of the remaining displacement that ensured was shortened mainstem river reaches, minnow population resides between complete in less than one decade increased the velocity of the current, San Acacia diversion dam and the (Cowley 1979). The plains minnow may and altered riparian vegetation, instream headwaters of elephant butte. In low be more tolerant of modified habitats cover, and substrate composition. The water years in this reach, all the water and, therefore, able to replace the spring runoff triggers the minnow's in the stream may be diverted into the silvery minnow in the modified reaches spawn and the eggs produced drift in irrigation system or drained from the of the Pecos River. It is also believed the water column. Diversion dams mainstem by the low flow conveyance that the two species hybridized. Habitat prevent the minnow from subsequently channel. In effect, water is being alteration and resulting flow being able to move upstream as waters conveyed to Elephant Butte reservoir modification could have also recede or as