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<br />Saturday, January 15, 2000 <br />I <br /> <br />THE <br />DENVER <br />POST <br /> <br />! : Founded 1892 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />William Oean Singleton, Chairman <br />Gerald E. Gnlly, President and Publisher <br />Glenn Guzzo, Editor <br />Jeanette Chavez, Managing Editor <br />Sue C'Bnen, Editor of the Editorial ~age <br />Jim M. Wall, Executive tIP, General Manager <br />Judd Alvord, VP Circulation <br />Thomas J. Botelho, VP Marketing . <br />Frank Dixon, VP Operations <br />Carol H. Green, VP Human Resources <br />Eric J. GriUy, VP Interactive Media <br />Cheryl L. Nealey, Chief Financial Officer <br />Allen J. Walters, VP Advertising <br /> <br />.. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />- , <br /> <br />A not quite as Lite 'A-LP <br /> <br />This state's longest-running <br />political soap opera - the <br />Animas-La Plata water <br />storage project in southwest <br />Colorado - may finally be drawing <br />to a close. <br />Originally authorized by Congress <br />in 1968, A-LP has been delayed by <br />economic and environmental contro- <br />versies for 32 years. Now, Interior <br />Secretary Bruce Babbitt has endors- <br />ed a sharply downsized plan that still <br />seems adequate to meet the legiti- <br />mate claims of the Southern Ute and <br />Ute Mountain Ute Indian trihes it <br />would primarily serve. <br />This project has mutated so often <br />that we're starting to run out of la- <br />bels. Designed to serve the Utes as <br />well as provide irrigation, municipal <br />and industrial water to non-Indian <br />users in southwest Colorado, the ini- <br />tial $744 million A-LP proposal <br />prompted some fiscal conservatives <br />to join environmental groups in op- <br />posing the plan. <br />In response, the Utes and their sup- <br />porters scaled back the project to a <br />sbarply reduced $257 million "A-LP <br />Lite" that cost less than even an ear- <br />lier alternative proposed by the Sier- <br />ra Club. <br />Babbitt eventually countered by <br />proposing a still smaller plan permit- <br />ting just 90,000 acre feet of storage <br />- barely adequate for Indian-only <br />needs - that was quickly dubbed "A- <br />LP Ultra Lite:' <br /> <br />Now Babbitt has blessed a slightly <br />more generous proposal that <br />emerged as the preferred alternative . <br />in the draft version of what is sup- . <br />posed to .be the "final supplement" to <br />A-LP's environmental impact state- <br />ment. We're not sure what's between <br />"Lite" and "Ultra Lite." So rather. <br />than dub it "Ultra Lite Plus," we'll <br />just note that the Ridges Basin Res- <br />ervoir near Durango, originally de- <br />signed in 1979 to hold 280,000 acre- <br />feet of water, is .now proposed as <br />120,000 acre-feet. That would allow <br />at least some storage fof municipal <br />. and industrial use in southwest Colo- <br />rado and northwest New Mexico, but <br />no irrigation water would be stored. <br />There also would be a permanent <br />pool of water for recreation and such <br />environmental purposes as maintain- <br />ing minimum stream flows. Best of <br />all, from a taxpayer standpoint, the <br />construction cost is now about $170 <br />million - less than a fourth of the <br />original tab. <br /> <br />Frankly, The Post can accept any <br />settlement of this long-standing con- <br />troversy that meets the legitimate <br />claims of the 1986 Colorado Ute Indi- <br />an Water Rights Settlement Agree- <br />ment. The tribes have endorsed this <br />compromise and that's good enough <br />for us. We urge Congress to proceed <br />forthwith on Colorado Rep. Scott Mc- <br />Innis's HR' 3112 to get this long-stall- <br />ed project under way. <br /> <br />- <br />