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~ . . " --. . ~he irrigation of those lands. On the Animas River, the affect will depend upon the quantity of water given to the Utes and also, which will further depend on what uses the court determines the Indians are entitled to under U.S. v. Winters, U.S. Supreme Court (1908). Certainly no qu~ tion that the Indians are entitled to water under the Winters Doctrine. The question the court must determine is how much water and for what uses. Any water given to the Utes will undoubtedly carry an 1868 water priority date - "creation of reservation" as already acknowledged by federal court decree in 1930 in the Morrison Ditch case on the Pine River. The effect will be to make both Durango's existing and future water rights more junior by whatever amount of water is given by the court to the Indians. How- ever, under the Animas-La Plata Project plan the Indians would have to sign up for water just like the City of Durango, would be allocated water to meet their reasonable Winters' demands. The lawsuit would for practical purposes become moot - there would be no need for continued litiga- tion. A good example is the Pine River which has for 39 years been providing an adequate water supply for both Indians and non-Indians. 9. WHAT ARE THE CITY OF DURANGO'S LEGAL OPTIONS IN ACQUIRING ADDITIONAL WATER STORAGE IN LEMON RESERVOIR? It may be possible for the City of Durango to condemn water storage in Lemon Reservoir, however, there are some serious legal questions as to whether or not you could condemn be- cause of the fact that Lemon Reservoir is a federal water reclamation project and the city would be attempting to condemn against the United States Government. At present there is no water allocated in Lemon Reservoir for domestic use. An attempt to change the allocation could require that a "new contract" be entered into between the various water users, those for domestic purposes, and more importantly the irrigators and that the resultant opening of the contract negotiation would result in a much higher cost which would certainly be objected to by the irrigators. There certainly is a political problem inasmuch as indicated earlier, Durango had an opportunity to participate in the Florida Project and turned down the opportunity on the basis that Durango had a sufficient water supply and that the cost of water from the Florida Project was too expensive. The question talks of acquiring additional water storage in Lemon Re- servoir, however, the City of Durango does not have any storage in Lemon Reservoir. They have used some water stor- age in Lemon Reservoir in the past that was made available because the Southern Ute Indian Tribe was not using some storage water to which they '~ere entitled and agreed to make it available to the City of Durango at the Southern Ute Indian Tribe's cost. Nobody objected to this use of -9-