WSP10782 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

-::::Du..-a.." ,,\0_ H~v:c..Jd... KCN-O-\'Y\w Ie .' '2001 "'''VJ''. '-1 -LP opponents protest 100 advocate for a river that flows freely; 500 letters sent Protest: Opponents asked to write ContinUed from Page 1 A N.M., brought her four children and carried a sign reading MConsid- e: the children of tomorrow." "We're just lovers of flowing water," she said. Nancy Jacques, a Durangoan and a longtime opponent of A-LP, By Melanie Brubaker Mazur Herald Staff Writer Chanting "no more dams," more than 100 people marched through Durango Friday to protest the official start of construction of the Animas-La Plata Project Marchers waved signs as they moved from Rotary Park to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Durango office at 835 E. Second Ave. and mailed more than 500 letters to the U.S. Congress, and bureau headquarters. The letters protested the cost and environ- mental effects of A-LP and requested an investigation by the General Accounting Office into the project's funding. The protest was sponsored by Living Rivers, an environmental group in Moab, Utah, with the support of 35 other businesses and environmental groups. While Friday marked the gov- ernment's official start of con- struction on A-LP, any actual earthwork in Ridges Basin; where a reservoir is supposed to be built to hold water from the Animas River, won't take place for at least - a year. Design work on the pump- ing plant and reservoir, an archae- ological study and relocation of two natural gas lines will begin with a $16 million appropriation passed by a congressional confer- ence committee on Oct. 17. In aU, the project is expected to cost $343.8 million. Protesters eamed signs stating "Dam the Bureau," "Revive the Colorado - an ecosystem, not a plumbing system," and "Bruce's Bathtub." The latter referred to former Interior Secretary Bruce Rabbitt's support for the pf<!.iect. Babbitt and other supponers said the project will fulfill water treaties signed with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. American Indians signed treaties with the U.S. government under duress when few of them were educated about the effects of such treaties, said Thomas Moms Jr., president of the Dine Medi- NANCY RICHMQNOJHeI8 Opponents of the Animas-la Plata Project march up East Second Avenue on t:rlday. Right: David Orr, director of field programs for Living Rivers, a Moab, Utah, environmental group, and Owen lam- mers, executive director, mall letters to Congress In front 01 the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation office. cine Men's Association. He told the crowd at the bureau office that Nav.yo Indians don't live by writ~ ten laws. "We live by nature law," he said. "It's an open law, an unwritten law." At a post-march gathering in Schneider Park,joEtta Goldtooth, of Tuba City, Ariz., echoed Morris' comment. Coldtooth is a member of the Din~ Sovereignty Defense Association, which is trying to secure Navajo water rights in the Colorado River. "We are a very poor nation," Goldtooth told the crowd. "If we had the rights to our water, we would be a very rich nation. Water is gold - it is life." If water is the blood of the Earth, Goldtooth said dams are blood clots. "That's how I look at it,n she said. Catherine Olson, of Cedar Hill, . See PROTEST, Page lOA NANCY RICHMONDIHer letters joi.Oed the group soaking up sun- shIne and listening to speakers. "A-LP truly is a dinosaur of a.nOther generation," she said. "It's bme for it to die and focus on other alternatives," lbe bureau should re-examine the entire Colorado rivershed and how the water is divided among dif- ferent users, she said. David Orr of Living RiVers told the protesters their actions cannot end with the rally. They need to write their representatives and inform their neighbors about the detrimen- tal effects of the project. he said. '"