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<br />- , <br />i~, _.,:, <br /> <br />With only the meager existing water supplies, the farmers are becoming <br />less and less competitive. Theywill soon be forced to abandon their farms and <br />ranches or subdivide them into homesites for people desiring to live outside the <br />fast growing communities of Farmington and Durango. <br /> <br />Project Development <br />The project will provide a water supply for 70,100 acres of <br />of which are located in Colorado and 8,630 acres in New Mexico. <br />Ute Tribe owns 12,440 acres of project land and the Southern Ute <br />acres. <br />All lands would be served from an underground pipe lateral system pressurized <br />for sprinkler irrigation. <br />The Animas-La Plata Project, together with the partially completed Navajo <br />Indian Irrigation Project and the Dolores Project would, when completed, provide <br />a pressurized water supply for about 210,000 acres of land in San Juan Basin. <br />Sprinkler irrigation tends to stimulate greater efficiency in that labor costs can <br />be reduced and field sizes increased. The newly developed lands together with a- <br />bout 190,000acres of land with an existing gravity water supply would make a total <br />irrigated agricultural area of about 400,000 acres in San Juan Basin. This would <br />open the opportunity for more intensified farming and the development of new ag- <br />rimarkets. There would be sufficient feed for livestock fattening and dairying. <br />Meat processing could be accomplished locally. Such cash crops as sugar beets, <br />malting barley, beans, etc. could be raised throughout the entire area and vege- <br />tables and orchards could be raised in the lower altitude areas. San Juan Basin <br />could become a major agricultural area. <br /> <br />lank, 61,470 acres <br />The Ute Mountain <br />Tribe owns 1,800 <br /> <br />potential Shift of Water of Other Uses <br />Reallocation of Water <br />Since water under federal reclamation projects is allocated to users and not <br />owned by those users, the opportunity of making large profits by selling irriga- <br />tion water to municipal and industrial users does not exist. Before irrigation <br />water can be reallocated for energy production, approval must be received from the <br />irrigation water user, the conservancy district board of directors, the Governor <br />of the State involved and the Secretary of Interior. The Governor's approval is <br />not required for reallocations to other purposes. <br />Subdivision of Agricultural Land <br />A new policy has just been initiated whereby the charges for irrigation water <br />will be made up of two components - an account charge and a charge for the quanity <br />of water allocated. The account charge will be sufficiently large that the owner <br />of a small tract, say three acres, will pay the full cost of his water, including <br />interest. The charge for quanity of water received will be established such that <br />it will not exceed the payment capability of a full time farmer. This will pre- <br />vent the small hobby farm from receiving subsidized irrigation water, as Has the <br />case on many older projects. Members of the existing La Plata Water Conservancy <br />District are considering increasing the account charge above that required by the <br />Bureau of Reclamation to further discourage subdivision of farm land. <br />There are already a large number of unoccupied lots already platted in the <br />communities of Marvel, Red Mesa, Kline, Breen and Hesperus. In addition there are <br />large tracts of nonirrigable land.in between the tracts of farm land that are well <br />adapted to meeting the needs for rural housing. <br />With a full irrigation water supply under pressure, project farmers will be- <br />come competitive with other farmers and can afford to keep their land in produc- <br />tion. This, of course, does not guarantee that no project land will be subdivided. <br />In fact, limited subdivision of irrigable land into well designed ranchetts could <br />be an enhancement to the overall quality of life. Congress certainly never in- <br />tended, however, that this type of development should be done with subsidized <br /> <br />-6- <br />