Water Supply and Demand Study 1/13/11

Animas -La Plata Water Marketing Supply and Demand Study Section 2
The Animas River is the most significant inflow to the San Juan River downstream of Navajo Reservoir
and, therefore, is important to meeting the flow recommendations for endangered fish. The FSEIS
indicates that flows from the Animas River into the San Juan River, while minimal at times, are typically
in the 240 cfs range. Under drought conditions it is possible that A -LP Project operations may be
adjusted in order to help satisfy the flow recommendations for the protection of the endangered fish and
their critical habitat.
Indian Reserved Water Rights of the Ute Tribes
The Winters Doctrine holds that with the establishment of an Indian tribe's reservation enough water to
make the reservation a homeland is implicitly reserved for the tribe. The reserved water rights of the Ute
Tribes for the streams that cross their reservations have an appropriation date of 1868. Because this
early date would have been senior to the later water rights of the area's farmers, ranchers and towns,
negotiations among many parties led to the passage of the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Final
Settlement Act of 1988 (P.L. 100 -585, 102 Stat. 2973) as amended by the Colorado Ute Settlement Act
Amendments of 2000 (114 Stat. 2763A -258 (201) (2000 Amendments). The Ute Tribes' reserved water
rights claims on the Animas and La Plata Rivers were resolved by providing the Tribes with "wet" water in
the A -LP Project, as opposed to just direct flow water rights. The reserved water rights for the Ute Tribes
from the Animas and La Plata Rivers are decreed in District Court, Water Division 7, Cases W- 1603 -76F
and J. The A -LP Project as now configured provides M &I water to primarily the Ute Tribes, with some
water for the Navajo Nation and for the State of Colorado and entities in Southwestern Colorado and
Northwestern New Mexico as described in Tables 1.1 and 1.2.
It is worth noting that the Tribes' A -LP Project water, because of the authorized federal funding, may be
acquired at a lesser cost than the State's water.
Southwestern Water Conservation District (SWCD) Water Rights from the A -LP Project
In 1966 Civil Actions 1751B and 807C, the SWCD was granted water rights with a 1938 appropriation
date for the originally authorized A -LP Project, including rights for five reservoirs and a major 600 cfs
transbasin direct flow diversion out of the Animas River 22 miles north of Durango at Teft to provide both
agricultural and M &I water. See Figure 2.1. With the enactment of the NEPA in 1973, and after a study
of 30 A -LP Project alternative designs from 1968 -1979, the A -LP Project changed from a multiple
reservoir system with lengthy canals to an offstream reservoir, known as Lake Nighthorse, just south of
Durango. In Case No. 80CW237, these direct flow and storage water rights were granted alternate
points of diversions on the Animas and La Plata Rivers, including a 600 cfs direct flow diversion at the
location of the DPP, and a storage right at Lake Nighthorse in the amount of 280,040 AF. In addition, in
Case 08CW81, the SWCD was decreed a new water right on Basin Creek for Lake Nighthorse; 900 AF
was decreed Absolute, for piscatorial and incidental wildlife use. and 5,500 AF, remains Conditional, for
all the original project uses including irrigation, domestic, municipal, industrial, recreation, storage, and
fish and incidental wildlife uses. Additional amounts of the A -LP Project water rights from the Animas
River for piscatorial and incidental wildlife uses could become Absolute with the completion of the A -LP
Project. The Animas -La Plata Project Compact, C.R.S. §37 -64 -101 to sea. allows the A -LP Project water
rights to be used in both Colorado and New Mexico with equal priority under the A -LP Project water
rights.
2.2 Updated Capital Costs
Brown and Caldwell provided a summary of the proposed capital repayment costs to the CWCB in a
February 2010 report titled "Animas -La Plata Project Water Supply and Demand Study ". At that time,
Reclamation provided the information presented below concerning the State of Colorado's repayment
obligation to the federal government if it should decide to purchase the entire 10,460 AF of annual yield
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FINAL ALP Report_1_13_11_LL.Docx