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to en N DRAFT c Chairman John Doolittle House Resources Committee Subcommittee on Water and Power 1522 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Dear Chairman Doolittle, As you know, the Department of the Interior released last week a draft Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the Animas-La Plata Project and its relationship to the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act. Public hearings are now scheduled for mid-February, and public comment will be accepted until mid-March. It is our understanding that Secretary Babbitt hopes to issue a Record of Decision around the first of June. H.R. 3112, introduced by Congressman Scott McInnis last fall, is necessary and important to implementation of the ROD. The legislation does not prejudge the outcome of the National Environmental Policy Act process, but it does amend the 1988 Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act to authorize the Secretary to move forward with a final settlement whose allocations of water are different than those called for in the 1988 measure. Without such authorization in place when or soon after the ROD is issued, we fear that further delays in this long-standing issue will occur. If the legislative authority is not granted until well into the next Congress, opponents who want no water resource development for the Colorado Ute Tribes will call for yet another round of updated environmental studies. The Tribes and the people of southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico have certainly waited long enough. While the preferred alternative in the FSEIS is a far less project than Indian and non-Indian water users have envisioned, it does meet a critical standard set forth in the settlement negotiations in the mid-80's: that the Ute claims be satisfied with a new, firm supply of water, not with water taken from their neighbors. A final settlement of the claims of the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribes is long overdue. We respectfully request your a88istance in reaching that final settlement by scheduling a hearing on Congressman Mcinnis' legislation in February or March. The NEPA process and the legislative process should move concurrently as open, public processes designed to reach a resolution this year. Thank you in advance for your consideration. The States of Colorado and New Mexico look forward to working with you and Congressman McInnis on this important issue.