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NEW MEXICO New Mexico and Colorado, including its recreational uses - it attracts some half-million visitors each year. Another important contribution of the Navajo Dam project is its capacity to hold water and then release it to meet the state's obligation to the lower basin states while still utilizing its apportioned share of the Colorado River System. Installation of hydropower generators in 1988 furnished electricity for the growing cities of the San Juan Basin. Service is provided by the Farmington Electric Utility at a reasonable cost. Prior to completion of this dam, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began construction of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (NIIP), which lies on the mesa south of the San Juan River and which could, upon completion, place 110,000 acres under cultivation. Enabling legislation for NIIP provided that the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry could divert 508,000 acre-feet of water yearly from Navajo Reservoir for agricultural use and provide jobs for Native Americans in the area. Facilitating delivery of this water are tunnels 18 feet in diameter, siphons 17.5 feet in diameter and concrete- lined canals with 23-foot bottom widths and 15-foot depths. They ensure the capability of conveying as much as 1,800 cubic feet per second. In addition, the Bureau of Reclamation constructed Cutter Dam, forming an off-stream reservoir covering 62 surface acres. The federal government had been active in other areas throughout the development years of the Navajo Dam Project. During the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Work Projects Administration (WPA) which, among other things, employed people on public programs. The San Juan Basin utilized this labor force on water storage and irrigation systems that were in need of repair and upgrading, including the construction of a reservoir and ditch modifications for the city of Farmington. Completed in 1936, this concrete dam today retains the Independent Ditch. (As a side note, the cost for water at that time was $2.25 a month.) WPA also constructed the Inca Ditch, known today as the Graves Atterbury Ditch, which runs north of Aztec at Cedar Hill to Crouch Mesa. Joe Hartman, a New Mexico rancher, noted the project was a success except for the fact that the ditch elevation at the terminus was 10 feet too DESERT BRUSH. low to deliver water to Crouch Mesa. Eventually, where the Inca Ditch stopped, the Graves Ditch began, thus forming a system known as the Graves Atterbury Ditch. U.S. government assistance continued when the Bureau of Reclamation became involved in construction of the Hammond Conservancy District Canal, which was started in the 1950s and is still receiving bureau assistance. The original project consisted of a 27-mile-long main canal that would transport 90 cubic feet per second. According to Charlie Keller, a San Juan County water historian, a prime mover of this project was Roy Young, who contributed substantial funds toward engineering and financed delegation trips to Washington, D.C. Keller noted that during construction of the siphon across Largo Canyon, engineers found remnants of three prior attempts to make a pipe crossing of this ominous arroyo. The remaining federal project to be constructed that would affect the San Juan Basin is the Animas-La Plata Project. To be located in La Plata and Montezuma counties in southwestern Colorado and in San Juan County, New Mexico, it would involve the diversion of water from the Animas River to the drainage of the La Plata and Mancos rivers. The project would include two off-stream reservoirs, Ridges Basin and Southern Ute; two major pumping plants; three major conveyance systems; a major power transmission line; and two diversion dams on the La Plata River. Upon completion, the project would supply about 198,200 acre-feet of water for irrigation and municipal/industrial uses. Water would be pumped from the Animas River and stored in the reservoirs. When needed in the valley, the bureau would release the required amount upon request. In the second phase, water would be pumped across the mountain to the La Plata and Ute Mountain side for irrigation. Ranchers and farmers have long played, and will continue to play, important roles in the development of water in the San Juan Basin through construction of many miles of ditches and diversion structures. According to a 1995 report by Tom Turney, now the state engineer for New Mexico, the Animas River has 18 diversions and untold miles of laterals between the Colorado state line and the confluence of the San Juan and Animas rivers. The San Juan River has eight diversions between Navajo Dam and the same confluence. During the early days, ditch maintenance was achieved by horse- drawn wagons and shareholders with shovels. Today the irrigators use track hoes, bulldozers, dump trucks and that same old shovel-power to maintain the infrastructures. In Bloomfield, the irrigators were particularly instrumental in the development of the community through construction of Citizens Ditch (about 1909) and through the operation of the Bloomfield Irrigation District. Also, the Bill Hares family, local basin farmers, helped in the construction of this ditch, which had a capacity to irrigate almost 8,000 acres of fine fruit and farming land in the fertile San Juan Valley. Later, the ditch company constructed a reservoir and 3.5 miles of Redwood pipeline to serve Bloomfield. All this was made possible by owners signing notes for loans to fund the project as no government monies were used for the early ditch and water systems. A publication of the Aztec Irrigated Lands Co. states that land in the early 1900s was selling for $50 to $200 per acre in Aztec and apples cost $1.55 per box. 0 0 0 a 24 W. R. GIBSON PHOTO CAPTURES CREW PERFORMING RIPRAP WORK ON THE ANIMAS RIVER TO DIVERT WATER INTO AN IRRIGATION DITCH. MASTERFULLY CONSTRUCTED ELEVATED DITCH CARRIES WATER OVER BARREN