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I e;[ilN - Z-2~~2. Environmental groups sue to halt Animas-La Plata ...... t",.......,...... "'........_. Sierra Club defense flmd lawyer says $640 million reservoir project nothing but an 'illegal turkey' By Joe Garner 1(0)(".' .1I"~Il'"ill Nrl,.'J SIal/IV,.", A coalition of five environmental organizations filed a long-threat- f'lll'd lawsuit Tuesday to stop con- slrueliol\ of the Animas-La Plata waler project. alleging massive vi- olaliuns of fcdl"rallaw. "An\'lllle who has looked at Ani- mas-!.;i Plaia's costs knows Ihat this project is a turkey," said Drew Caputo, an attorney for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. which represented the environmental groups thai sued the Bureau of Rt'dalllalion, "Our lawsuit will show the pro-- jeet i~ even worse than people thought. It's an illrgalturkey," he said. Fir!:.1 aulhorlzt'd 24 years ago al all ('Slllll:ilt'd cosl of $118 million, Ihe sy~lt'll1 of dams, reservoirs and ranal'!l H'lltered on the Animas and La PlaIa rivers in southwestern Colur,lIlo is projected to cost $6,10 million today, The tawsuit likely will have little : impact Oil Ihe project, and neither . '. will.it..result tn.~l1Y.layotf.si~~:iid ,.", DR;" fhl'1.f -the' bureau'!'iii(e).' of ellvUOIlluelllal slandilrds on the projt'{'I. "Wt''\'t' had Ihrt"t: notices of in. I('nl 10 ~ut'. so this wasn't a sur- pris('," Frilz said. "We expect to COUIlIlue duing design work and aC(luiril1J{l.illd." A gwundbreaking last October oulsit!t" Durango was largely cere- monial. Frilzsaid. U We've had three notices of intent to sue, so this wasn't a surprise, We ex- pect to continue doing design work and acquiring land." Dan Fritz HI/reouo/Reclal!latioll TIl(' pageantry marked rt'solu. tion of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv- In~ objerlions to how the projecl could be built without hurling a sm,llI populalion of endangered fish living downstream from a pro- posed darn, .T~e.laws.~~. filed in V,S. Pis: Irlel'Court III DeTlver, seeks an" .:> "' " -.I o illjUllClioll 10 SlOP Ihe project, which is inlended 10 provide irriga- lioll, mUllidpal and industrial wa- ter 10 soulhwt'st Colorado and northwt'~t New Mexico, as well as waler for the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute tribes in Colora- do. . The 1,lwsuil also would require the .bureau, which is managin~ the prOJeft, 10 prepare a new environ- mental.impact statement on grounds the aile dralted in 1980 is outdated because of changes in the scope of construction. It also claims violations of the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, Such environmental lawsuits typically take years to be resolved. "We're going to try to move this case lorward because we think it's so important:' Caputo said. Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, O-Colo.. who earlier caned the An- imas-La Plata "perhaps the last of the great lederally funded water projects," crilicized the lawsuit as llIisguidt:d. The tJpponenb are "grasping at It'gal straws in order to kill a pro. jeet (Iht.y have) opposed from the beginning," Campbell said, The olher plaintiffs in the law- suil are the Four Corners Action Coalition, Colorado Wildlife Feder- at jail, Taxpayers for the Animas. ,\ ~Iv~r, Southern Utah Wild~mes~ .'.'Alliance and the Sierra Ctub: , ..'"