The Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee (MRRIC) held the first meeting of its 10th anniversary year in Omaha, Nebraska, on March 27-29.
According to the official announcement, this was the committee’s 40th meeting since it was established by the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 and chartered in 2008.
At this meeting, MRRIC heard about the USACE and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s planned completion of the Missouri River Recovery Management Plan Environmental Impact Statement.
MRRIC’s Independent Science Advisory Panel provided comments on the USFWS’s draft Biological Opinion.
“ An independent review of the science is very valuable to the Missouri River Recovery Program and contributes to the committee’s confidence in this collaborative process, ” said MRRIC Chair Gail Bingham.
“MRRIC requested this review and appreciates the willingness of the Corps and the USFWS to having the BiOp reviewed by independent scientists.”
The USFWS is scheduled to provide the final BiOp to USACE in April 2018.