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. feet of water made up of the product of a per capita use rate of 252 gallons and a total population of 48,900 people in the year 2020. The actual yield of the sy- stem as described above would be 18,530 acre-feet. Using the same per capita use rate this amount of water would serve a population of 65,700. There are a number of alternate concepts that can be used in building the new water treatment plant and water distribution system. The Bureau of Reclamation is prevented from building treatment facilities. However, the Definate Plan Re- port does provide a trunk line from the proposed treatment plant site near Ridges Basin Reservoir to Durango City limits. Either Durango or the Animas-La Plata Water Conservancy District could build the treatment plant. Either agency could also take care of operation and main- tenance of the facilities. I ..... highly recommend that the Durango City Council and the Board of Di- rectors of the Animas Water Company, the South Durango and Northeast Water Districts and the Animas-La plata Water Conservancy District' jointly hold hearings to receive input regarding the final amount of project water that the complex should subscribe for and who should build and operate the new treatment plant and trunk water lines.. Method of Cost Allocation Municipal and industrial project purposes must pay all costs in full, including interest costs. Project costs are allocated according tc the separable costs-remaining benefit method prescribed by the national Water Resources Council. Separable costs are first allocated to each purpose. The various purposes then share in the saving resulting from building the multipal purpose project over building single purpose projects taking into account benefits received and the cost of each single purpose alternate. For this reason, the cost of municipal and industrial water varies greatly between entities depending on the amount of facil- ities used and the cost of each entitie~ cheapest alternative. As an example, only a part of the project water delivered to New Mexico com- munities has to be pumped into Ridges Basin Reservoir. These entities must build their own diversion and terminal storage facilities. On the other hand, the Durango Service Area will have all its project water (8,200 acre-feet) pumped into Ridges Basin and delivered back to Durango in a project trunk line. As a result, the price of the Durango Service Area water supply is considerably greater t.han that for the New Mexico Communities. Since the industrial water for the Ute Indian Tribes must be pumped through a second discharge line and transported into the La Plata drainage, the charge for that water is even greater. Industrial Water The use of industrial water has already been covered under the heading of "Energy Impacts" on pages 3 and 4. Agriculture Present Development Agriculture in the Colorado portion of the La Plata River drainage peaked in the 1920's. It was a wet precipitation cycle prior to the implementation of the La Plata River Compact. That compact required Colorado to divide the limited flows of the stream with New Mexico users. During the 1920's there were about 20,000 acres of land under irrigation in Colorado. There were 22 businesses, including a bank at Marvel. There were also significant communities at Red Mesa, Kline, Breen and Hesperus. During the drouth of the 1930's, after the interstate compact was implemented, the irrigated area was reduced to less than 10,000 acres. More than 70 percent of the residents were on relief. The people of the area have been trying to re- cover ever since. -5- :'ii ~ .(" ';'" ~t .~: ,j '-( f:o> ~/: .X ~... "'" : .~: