Laserfiche WebLink
<br />I!" <br />I <br /> <br />Animas-La Plata I 1996 <br /> <br />Cease-fire called on the <br />Animas-La Plata front <br /> <br />By Ed Marston <br /> <br />November 11. 1996 <br /> <br />ARVADA, Colo. - It is a more and more <br />common scene in the West. People who <br />are personal and professional enemies. people <br />who let no opportunity pass to say something <br />nasty about each other, are this morning sitting <br />together at tables arranged in a large, hollow <br />square. Behind them are colleagues and sup- <br />porters who occasionally roll their eyes or <br />leave the audience to whisper advice to those at <br />the table. <br />In the hollow space at the center of the <br />tables, lies, figuratively, the beast. It is the $710 <br />million - and counting - Animas-La Plata <br />Project, named after two rivers in southwest <br />Colorado that it would forever alter. <br />Around the table are those who see the <br />project as their salvation and those who see it <br />as their worst nightmare: Native Americans, <br />environmentalists, farmers, ranchers, govem~ <br />ment officials and, most of all, lawyers. <br />The 70 participants in this sterile banquet <br />room at the Arvada Center for the Arts and <br />Humanities have been brought together by <br />Colorado Gov. Roy Romer and Interior <br />Secretary Bruce Babbitt. It is a high-risk strat- <br />egy - a desperate consensus effort to resolve <br />a desperate situation. This bitter feud has <br />sapped Colorado's political energies for a <br />decade. Animas-La Plata may be to Colorado <br />what abortion is to the nation: a litmus-test <br />issue that twists every aspect of political life. <br />Yet here they are around the same table. <br />No one knows for sure what has driven them <br />bere. It may be a kind of exhaustion that <br />Colorado Rep. David Skaggs alludes to when <br />he says: "A consensus approach is more likely <br />to reach conclusion in our lifetimes." <br />Romer, a fervent advocate of Animas-La <br />Plata, puts it this way: ''This problem needs a <br />resolution. We've had a lot of advocacy over a <br />period of time, but I don't think we've had the <br />opportunity to sit together with all of the par- <br />ties and talk." <br />Romer is spending some chunk of his <br />political capital on this process, but he wasn't <br /> <br /> <br />optimistic that A-LP's dams, pumping stations <br />and reservoirs would ever be built. "It's clear to <br />me there are obstacles out there that may be <br />insurmountable." <br />If anything can end the gridlock, it's the <br />agreement that most negotiators carried into <br />the room: that the descendants of Indians who <br />once roamed much of Colorado, and who are <br />now confined to two reservations in the arid <br />San Juan Basin in the southwestern part of the <br />state, have a rigbt to water. Romer opened the <br />day by telling the negotiators: <br />"I take these obligations very seriously; <br />the Southern Utes and the Ute Mountain Utes <br />have important water rights, and that should <br />not be disputed. The challenge for us today and <br />beyond is to determine how we will satisfy <br />those rights." <br /> <br />A.LP Is like a treaty <br />The present Animas-La Plata Project is <br />designed to satisfy these rights. The A-LP crit- <br />ics in the room - people like Maggie Fox of <br />the Sierra Club, Ray Frost of the Southern Ute <br /> <br />~?_\.f\ f>l.AT^ <br /> <br />\.n~"A\N5 <br />IV:rVAN ~o <br /> <br />o <br />I ...Ol&.~ <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br /> <br />';;'- <br /> <br />D...ran~o <br /> <br />/: <br /> <br />s.c~i\!'-o.2.,~-':- <br />f'JEW ME;)(IC.O <br />c.O,-OR 0 '. <br />--><<, t: <br /> <br />rJ)" <br />~ " <br />~. <br /> <br />II:> 1996 High Country News - 3:' <br />