WSP11417

• File Number: 8220.106
• Description: Animas-La Plata
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 4/4/1976
• Author: R.H. "Bob" Tyner
• Title: Prepared Statement on the Animas-La Plata Project for use in debate with Preston Ellsworth at Ft. Lewis College
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

irrigation water and will not be on the Animas-La Plata Project.

Subsidy of Irrigation Water
To stimulate agricultural production Congress passed the Reclamation Act of
1902 which provided interest free money to build irrigation projects in the seven-
teen western united States. A limitation was included that prevented project water
from being delivered to a single ownership in exceSS of 160 acreS. The idea was
to prevent subsidized water from being used on large corporate farms.
In 1956 the Colorado River Storage Project was passed by Congress. This
act provided for the construction of a number of large main stem storage reservoirs
with hydroelectric powerplants, together with a series of smaller multiple purpose
participating projects. All units are required to meet feasibility standards
(favorable- benefit-cost analysis). However, irrigation water users repayment of
construction costs are limited to repayment capability. These figures are to be
computed by the Bureau of Reclamation for each project using farm budget analyses
that take into account climate, potential crop yields, gross income and expenses,
together with an allowance for interest on the farmer's equity in his investment,
wages for his labor and a return for his management ability.
The allocated costs of irrigation above the farmers capability to repay are
to be payed for from power revenues that will become available after the costs of
the main stem units have been paid off.
Under terms of the Leavitt Act, Indians are required to pay only operation,
maintenance and replacement cost of irrigation water. However, if they should
sell their land to non-Indians, applicable capital costs must be repayed including
past assessments.
Because the Animas-La Plata Project is O.M.&R. intensive, Indian' water users
will pay about two-thirds as much as non-Indians for their irrigation water.
Subsidies are always debatable. A New Yorker would probably oppose an irriga-
tion subsidy and westerners generally question such subsidies as the,Washington
subway.
No one knows how soon the world is going to start having serious food and
fiber shortages but certainly the time is not too far distant. Irrigation projects
are not subject to variations in production like nonirrigated agriculture and,
therefore, have a stabilizing effect on food and fiber supplies. Agricultural pro-
ducts currently constitute the major portion of our favorable balance of trade.
I am sure these, and other good reasons, are why Congress has not seen fit
to do away with irrigation subsidies.

Economic Impacts

Benefits
The project will produce the following annual net benefits in millions of
dollars:

Agricultural
Municipal and industrial
Recreation
Fish and wildlife
Area redevelopment
Total

Colorado
9.6
7.1
0.8
0.3
0.2
18.0

New Mexico
1.3
1.2
0.0
0.0
0.0
2.5

Total
10.9
8.3
0.8
0.3
0.2
20.5

Particularily. the agricultural benefit is neW wealth that will stimulate
an economic turnover many times greater than the actual value of the original farm
products themselves. The project will produce an economic base that will have a
stabilizing effect on the fluctuating tourist economy of today.
Although the dollar benefit computed by the Bureau of Reclamation for recrea-
tion and fish and wildlife is not extremely large, it does represent a total of

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