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the obligation of the United States of America to ensure that the delivery of water was within the settlement. It should have been in black and white that we would receive that. I, at that time, was not in the position that I am today, so we ended up with a piece of paper that I did not feel we should accept. However, we have to live with that settlement now. Hopefully, in the future some of our water lawyers can go back and try to rectify some of the problems within the settlement itself. Perhaps, within the option of leasing water we may be able to solve some of the problems. I am concerned with what you have just said and what it is going to cost us to transport water from Animas La-Plata to my reservation, which is over 70 miles away. That will cost a pretty penny, to put a pipe like that across such a difference, and then we must negotiate with private property and people who may not have the same ideals as you, concerning how to transport the water. Like I said, this is my personal opinion, as a young tribal leader. I would not have signed it the way it was written. However, we have to work with what we have, and be innovative to overcome our obstacles. Scott McElroy: As Jerald said earlier, I do not represent the Ute Mountain Utes, I am the lawyer for the Southern Utes. The Animas La- Plata proj ect was a critical aspect of the settlement from the Southern Utes, perspective. It has been something that the Southern Utes have been involved with long before I began to represent them. The statement that the Southern Utes, do not receive water from that project is not an accurate statement. The Southern Utes, under the settlement, are to receive both water and facilities, under what is known as Phase I of the settlement. Phase I includes Ridges Basin Dam and Reservoir, and it also includes some of the irrigation facilities originally set forth in the Definite Plan Report for the Animas La- Plata Project. Southern Utes will get irrigation water from those irrigation facilities that are to be built as part of the project. They will get their M & I water out of Ridges Basin Reservoir, which is also to be built as part of Phase I. In terms of the Southern Utes' perspective, they not only receive water from the project, as the Ute Mountain Utes do, but they also receive delivery facilities associated with Phase I of the project. Those of you who know about the Endangered Species Act controversies that we have had on the San Juan River, know that we have had problems getting the construction of the project authorized. Currently, the only approval that we have had is to go ahead with construction of Ridges Basin Dam. However, the fact that we only have approval for Ridges Basin Dam does not mean that the second part has been disapproved. That question has been deferred. It is within these situations where we may run into some of the problems that we discussed earlier under the Endangered Species Act. Under the settlement, if the facilities necessary to deliver the water to the Southern Ute tribe was not constructed by the year 2000, then the Tribe can reopen its litigation. The Southern Utes have not given away their ability to get irrigation delivery facilities as part of the settlement at all. The fact that they took their water from Ridges Basin Reservoir rather than Southern Ute Reservoir, which is 61