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Since the timetable for ALP construction was unclear in 1986, the Settlement Agreement provides the Tribes with an election of remedies: if certain ALP facilities are not completed by January 1,2000, the Tribes must elect by January 1,2005, whether to retain their project water rights (possibly without the facilities to put them to full use) or reopen their reserved water right claims on the Animas and La Plata Rivers, either by renewing litigation in the water court or renegotiating their claims. After 10 years of controversy surrounding issues of the Project's environmental effects and its total cost, it is now evident that the January 1, 2000, deadline cannot possibly be met. Following litigation over agency compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEP A), and over the Tribes' protest that no supplement to the Project's 1980 Final Environmental Impact Statement (SFEIS) was needed, Reclamation completed the SFEIS for ALP and filed it with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on April 26, 1996. The Supplement has four main areas of emphasis: (1) compliance with provisions of the Clean Water Act; (2) changed requirements for certifying that project lands will not produce flows which could increase selenium; (3) new or updated information that has become available since the 1980 FEIS was completed; and (4) evaluation of design and other refinements to the Project. However, when some additional environmental concerns surfaced, EP A review of the SFEIS was postponed. Later that spring, the leaders of the Ute Tribes met with the Secretary of the Interior to discuss the delay in construction of ALP and the implementation of the settlement of the Tribes' reserved water rights. Secretary Babbitt suggested that the Tribes work with Governor Roy Romer to develop an approach that might resolve the concerns that has been raised by ALP opponents, including the Animas River Citizens Coalition. The first meeting of a process initiated by Colorado Governor Roy Romer and Lieutenant Governor Gail Schoettler was held on October 9, 1996, with subsequent meetings held on 4- to 6-week intervals. For over a year, the Tribes and other settlement parties met with ALP opponents and representatives of the Department of the Interior and the EP A under the supervision of Lieutenant Governor Gail Schoettler. While no consensus position emerged, two alternatives were developed near the end of the process. The last meeting was held on August 13, 1997. At the end of the Romer-Schoettler process, there was no consensus on how to proceed. Governor Romer suggested in a letter to the Department of the Interior that the two alternatives be further evaluated. The alternative supported by the Tribes, the other parties to the 1988 Settlement Act, and ultimately the State of Colorado involved greatly reducing the scope of the settlement so that it could be implemented with the construction of only those ALP facilities needed for a 57,100 acre-foot average annual depletion. This excludes all ALP irrigation facilities, both Tribal and non-Tribal. The remainder of the ALP facilities, including irrigation facilities, would remain authorized but their construction would not be required to complete the settlement. The Tribal Councils of the two Ute Tribes took the view that this alternative addressed the environmental and economic concerns that had been raised about ALP and the role that it plays in the settlement of the tribal rights under the 1988 Settlement Act. The other alternative developed by the Citizens Coalition, which was rejected by the two Ute Tribes, other 7