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technologies for coal development, from similar reserves, that do not require "water slurry" systems are being studied for application in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, Alternatives to evaluate include coal gasification and coal slurry with methanol. . Strong argument can be made that the Federal Government (BIA, BLM & EPA) has failed to carry out specific trust obligations to our Tribe by allowing methane gas development to occur in ways that have damaged Tribal groundwater resources. While moving us towards development of the ALP the Federal Government has facilitated the destruction of more Tribal water than the ALP would make available under optimistic assumptions. It is appropriate for us, as we review alternatives to the ALP, to seek federal commitments to: I) arrest this problem, 2) rehabilitate the damaged where possible, and, 3) compensate the Tribe for the groundwater that cannot be restored, . In 1990, our cousins in Northern Utah received a $125 million economic development fund as part of their alternative settlement to promised federal water development that failed, Our alternative settlement should be consistently fair on a comparative scale, Alternatives For Other APL Participants While it is not our place to evaluate or assume the interests and needs of any other ALP participant, we do not want to project insensitivity to their legitimate place in the process and decision making about the ALP, We pass along the following as ideas and possibilities we have identified in our study of ALP alternatives. Alternatives for New Mexico Communities: From our perspective the New Mexico communities participating in the ALP are hostages, rather the beneficiaries of the project, A little creativity by the BaR, applied to the water and storage available in Navajo Reservoir and the priority New Mexico water rights it holds for the ALP, can produce and alternative future water supply for these communities that imposes little or no repayment obligation, The $9 plus million that has been collected from San Juan County taxpayers could be refunded, When New Mexico's state legislature figured this out it passed a resolution opposing the ALP. Solving equations of this kind is what the "new" BaR is all about. Again, why is the ALP an exception? Alternatives for Duran!!o: Durango is investigating meeting its needs without the ALP by (among other options) purchasing additional water from the BaR's Florida Project. The BaR did a study in 1988 which acknowledges that: I) there are 7,000-9,000 acre feet of water available from the Florida River Project, and 2) this water could be sold to municipal users through a specified change in repayment arrangements, This option together with already identified water exchanges and conservation measures is an equivalent substitute for all of the water Durango is presently anticipating from the ALP, 4