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<br />COLORADO
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<br />Tuesdav, Maroh 14, 200iJ
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<br />THE DENVER POST
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<br />Tribe's attorney defends Animas i
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<br />~::e:~f.:oject up fO~f ~~~~~ ~t~~:~~~UbliC ~~~~:~~~i~;i~~~g:~~":2~~~ r;g a::i~ll~~:~;'~~~~I~~:l
<br />(jlenver Post Four Corners Bureau bearing in Durango, Fort Lewis College foot-hi~h dam and 14,OOQ-acre reselVoir if been delivered to Southern Ute lands. ~
<br />Ever since the ink dried on their 1986 economist Dale Lehman said that, with ~ujltmmas.La Plata water project is ever The Southern Utes have identified~ p
<br />water-rights settlement, the Southern estimated federal costs fOf the project tential uses for only 14,580 acre~f
<br />Utes and Ute Mountain Ute tribes have at$279 million, the government would per year of water, and the Ute MOll -
<br />been told the cornerstone of that agree- be wiser to give $93,000 to each o( the tain Utes so far have described possib
<br />ment, the Animas-La Plata Project, 3,000 tribal members. uses for only 3,299 acre-feet per y{'a .
<br />,as a bad deal for them. "A far better project would be to just So, the two Colorado Ute tribes are wil -
<br />: They heard the same argument by cut a check to the tribes," Lehman said. ing to give up some of their Animas-41
<br />Eject opponents again last month at "It's offensive," Southern Ute Tribe Plata Project water to the state of Col-
<br />ee public hearings on a draft envi- water attorney Scott McElroy said of orado and a New Mexico water district.
<br />onmental impact statement for the the proposal. "It's not what the tribes They would relinquish 6,010 acre-f~t
<br />long-d.elayed water project. said they want, and it's pretty short- of their annual river-depLeUon allovJ-
<br />, A.LP was authorized by Congress for sighted. Money is quickly gone. What anee, of which the state of Coloratf.o
<br />southern Colorado and northern New you need for the long term is infrastruc- would get 5,300 acie~f{'E't. (
<br />Mexico in 1968, but its environmental, tore... and natural resources. Access The Southern lite and Ule Mountain
<br />~nomic and political drawbacks have to water is the key to economic develop- Ute tribes are still choosing to honor h
<br />"ept the proposed reservoir site in ment in the West." . hed' 1997 'th th I
<br />lUdges Basin more suitable for camels Besides, he said, there'~.s:me conf~- ~~~r;::r~e:~o 'ar~ in ji';}or ~n1
<br />than speedboats. sion about geography. 1 ges Basm ect water, even though the Clinton ad-
<br />! "The tribe's water is not useful to the borders the Southern Ute Indian Reser- .. t. h k d th 601"
<br />vation. Although trihal headquarters is mlDlstra IOn as earmar e e,,,~
<br />trtes in Ridges Basin," a Durango resi- 'I. "I to th th acre.feet as part of an Indian water
<br />~ent said at one mid-February hearing. m gnaclO, about 25 ml es e sou - rights settlement, Ute Mountain Ute
<br />1'(The reservoir) might as well be in east, McElroy and other Southern Ute water counsel Dan IsraeL said. The
<br />~alifOrnia, but we all know that getting officials say, a water suppLy on the tribe's reallocation proposal is incJud~
<br />e Utes the water is not the point." western end of the reservation would . d. b.n f ALP t r
<br />enable development in a now-empty ill a pen mg L or - ('ons rue If'.n
<br />I Only a few A-LP opponents argue part of their lands. by Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo. ;
<br />that the tribes are not'entitled to senior So ALP (d lh j
<br />"The reservation is not just Ignacio. me . opponcn s s8i e prn -
<br />water rights on the Animas and La Pla- The tribe has wanted development on fall and winter. ect would so deplete the Animas ~t
<br />ta rivers. However, most have stead- Id d" h Is I t hil'
<br />that west side," McElroy said. "It's sort The more distantly situated Ute wou Iminis i u~ er as a w . ew~-
<br />t'UY maintained that water stored for t g A Ute M l U'le t ' I
<br />of nuts, which is always the case with Mountain utes, who now bave water de- er em. Olin ain riu<j
<br />e tribes in Ridges Basin, a few miles A-LP. Vallecito and Lemon reservoirs livered to their reservation (rom the member asked them if thf'Y really Pe-
<br />$outh of Durango, would not benefit both sit farther off the reservations Dolores Project's McPhee Reservoir, lieve the Ute tribes should give up A~Lr
<br />them. than Ridges Basin, and yet that's where could lease their share of A-LP water to so rafters can enjoy six more days ~l
<br />~OO1 t rt pO "bl they say the Utes should take their wa- other in-state users, McElroy said. the river a year. .
<br />! sassI e ter from." Under the vastly scaled-hack version Other A-LP critics see it as the spigdt
<br />A-LP doesn't include a water"deliv- In any case, McElroy said, the tribes of A-LP now considered, which is the that will bring perhaps as many as
<br />,ry system to the Ute reservati~ns; it have tens of millions of dollars in feder- preferred alternative of the Interior De- 200,000 new people into a region thf'r
<br />features only a $26 million pipeline to a1 ecoDomic.development funds from partment and the Bureau of Reclama- don't want overrun, but to claim it"s a
<br />deliver a smaller share of A-LP water the 1986 settlement as well as their own lion, the two tribes would each be al- bad deal for the tribes is inlellectuall.~
<br />lo the Navajo Nation at Shiprock. considerable resources. lowed to deplete the Animas River by dishonest, McElroy said. .
<br />Tbe Utes' water rights are merely the They can build a water pipeline, he 19,980 acre-feet per year. The water The bureau's lalest em'ironmenfiJl
<br />b:cuse, the justification for A.LP, oppo~ said, or the Southern Utes can take could be used only for drinking water work on the Animas-La Plaia Projtct Is
<br />~ents say. some water directly from the Animas and industrial uses. available for public reylew. Writte{1
<br />i Pat Schumacher, manager of the Du" River, which runs through their reser- ''It was a very painful experience," comments will be accepted throU~1
<br />tango.based Bureau of Reclamation, vation. A reservoir could store water McElroy said of the long process that April 17. For more information, or tp
<br />$aid that if A-LP does pass environmen- from the Animas during high spring resulted in the compromise version of obtain a copy of the document, call ihe
<br />tal muster by the end of the summer, a flows and release it back into the river the project often dubbed A-LP U1tra- U.S. Bureau of Jlec/amation Four Lot-
<br />construction start in late 2001 is not out during the low flows of late summer. Lite. "They (federal officials) sliced off ners Division, 970-385-6558 or 3115-6500.
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