WSPP00021

• File Number: 8064
• Description: Indian Water Rights
• State: CO
• Date: 1/1/3000
• Title: Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights-Final Settlement Agreement-December 10 1986-Breifing Paper No 1-Fact Sheet on the Settlement
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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-- include substantial cost-sharing by the
state and non-federal parties in the con-
struction of the Animas-La plata

-- preserve the amicable and cooperative
relationships and friendships long valued
among the Indian and non-Indian communities
in southwest Colorado

Under the terms of the Agreement, the Ute Mountain Ute
Indian Tribe will receive the right to beneficially use 25,100
acre feet of water from the Dolores project, 33,000 acre feet of
water from the Animas-La Plata project, and 27,400 acre feet of
water from three streams flowing through the reservation. The
Southern Ute Indian Tribe will receive the right to beneficially
use 29,900 acre feet of water from the Animas-La plata Project
and over 10,000 acre feet of water from various other water
sources serving the reservation. Both Tribes will receive under-
ground water for individual domestic and livestock uses and will
have their current water uses protected.

The construction of the Animas-La Plata Project and the
completion of the irrigation facilities of the Dolores Project
are keystones to the water rights settlement because without this
additional storage and water supply, there is insufficient water
to meet the future needs of the Tribes and the current demand of
the non-Indian communities. Non-Indian user populations in
southwest Colorado and northwest New Mexico receiving benefits
from the Animas-La Plata Project have committed to help finance
the project. On June 30, 1986, their cost-share commitments were
found by the Secretary of the Interior to meet the cost-share
requirements set out by Congress in Section IV of Public Law
99-88. '

The negotiated settlement also creates a $60.5 million
development fund which will allow the Tribes to put their newly
acquired water resources to use. Of this, the State of Colorado
will contribute $11 million, $6 million of this to construct a
much needed domestic pipeline to the Town of Towaoc on the Ute
Mountain Ute Reservation, a town without potable drinking water
and which now daily hauls its water.

Implementation of the negotiated Agreement requires court
approval of its terms, judicial settlement of the litigation, and
the enactment of federal legislation necessary to implement its
terms. The federal legislation will: (1) provide the Tribes
with relief from the prohibitions of the Non-Intercourse Act, an
Act which would otherwise foreclose leasing of Tribal water; (2)

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