WSP10104

• File Number: 8220.106
• Description: Animas-La Plata
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 1/1/1979
• Title: Reasons for Building the Animas-La Plata Project
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Project Overview

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can be reduced and field sizes increased. The newly developed lands, together
with about 190,000 acres of land with an existing gravity water supply would make
a total irrigated agricultural area of about 400,000 acres in San Juan Basin.
This would open the opportunity for more intensified farming and the development
of new agrimarkets. There would be sufficient feed for livestock fattening and
dairying. Meat processing could be accomplished locally. Such cash crops as
sugar beets, malting barley, beans, etc., could be raised throughout the entire
area and vegetables and orchards could be raised in the lower altitude areas. San
Juan Basin could become a major agricultural area.

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Potential Shift of Water of Other Uses
Reallocation of Water
Since water under federal reclamation projects is allocated to users and
not owned by those users, the opportunity of making large profits by selling irriga-
tion water to municipal and industrial users does not exist. Before irrigation
water can be reallocated for energy production, approval must be received from the
irrigation water user, the conservancy district board of directors, the Governor
of the State involved and the Secretary of Interior. The Governor's approval is
not required for reallocations to other purposes.
Subdivision of Agricultural Land
With only the meager existing water supplies, the farmers currently are be-
coming less and less competitive. They will soon be forced to abandon their farms
and ranches or subdivide them into homesites for people desiring to live outside the
fast growing communities of Farmington and Durango.
With the project, the farmers can become competitive in agriculture and will
not be under pressure to subdivide their land. There are already a large number of
unoccupied lots already platted in the communities of Marvel, Red Mesa, Kline,
Breen and Hesperus. In addition there are large tracts of nonirrigable land in
between the tracts of farm land that are well adapted to meeting the needs for
rural housing.
A new policy has just been initiated whereby the charges for irrigation water
will be made up of two components - an account charge and a charge for the quanity
of water allocated. The account charge will be sufficiently large that the owner
of a small tract, say three acres, will pay the full cost of his water, including
interest. The charge for quanity of water received will be established such that
it will not exceed the payment capability of a full time farmer. This will pre-
vent the small hobby farm from receiving subsidized irrigation water, as was the
case on many older projects.

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IrriRation Subsidies
Irrigation water for family sized farms under the Reclamation program is sub-
sidized in two respects. First repayment is interest free and secondly those costs
above the irrigators repayment ability are subsidized from excess power revenues
from Reclamation hydroelectric power plants.
Like all subsidies, these are, of course, debatable. However, we are fast
approaching a period of world wide food and fiber shortages. Currently, agricul-
tural products provide our counties best means of offsetting our heavy trade de-
ftcites for other products. Irrigated agriculture is not as sensitive to weather
conditions as nonirrigated agriculture and, therefore, has a stabalizing effect on
food and fiber supplies and, in turn, prices. Because of the lag time in building
water resource projects, proponents of the Animas~La Plata Project feel; that from

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