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I l /1.3 .,-- . ~ / 3,400 acre feet of Irrigation water. Perhaps more significantly, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe Is not required to reimburse the United States for .ither operating or capital costs of the Project until the Tribe actually puts Its water to uset That is a valuable and virtually unprecedented advantage for the Tribe, Indeed, the Secretary of the Int.rior has authority under the Settlement Act to waive or reduce the Tribe's repayment Obligations at any time. Finally, In using water from the Project, the Tribe Is freed from many of the restraints of f.deral reclamation law. The Water Districts and the states of Colorado and New Mexico, as well as the Tribes, have relied on the construction of the AlLP Project as the foundation of the federal govemment's commitments in the Cost Sharing Agreement and the Settlement Agreement. Several substantial steps have been taken in reliance on those Agreements: 1) the State of. Colorado has committed $30 million to the settlement of the Tribes' water rights claims, has expended $6 mllllon to construct a domestic pipeline from the Cortez ",... municipal watertr.atment plant to the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation at Towaoc, and has contributed $5 million to the tribal development funds; 2) the United States Congress has appropriated and turned ov.r to the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian Tribes $49.5 million as part of their tribal development funds, and 3) water user organizations have signed repayment contracts with Reclamation. The construction of the AlLP Project is the only missing piece to the successful implementation of the Settlement Agreement and the Settlement Act. In reliance on the Settlement Agreement, the Settlement Act and the Cost Sharing Agreement, the states 01 Coloraclo and New Mexico, the Tribes and water user organizations participated In public meetings to assist the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the "Service") in developing a reasonable and prudent alternative ("RPA") for the AlLP Project for the benefit of the endangered fish In the San Juan River and Its tributaries. This public process overcame the Service's belateCl reversal of Its position concerning the Importance of the endangered fish In the San Juan River, After Initially deciding In 1979 that the AlLP Project would not have an adverse Impact upon endangered fish species In the San Juan River, the Service In May, 1990 reversed Its 1979 biological opinion. All water users In the San Juan Basin, Including the Navajo Nation and the Jicarllla Apache Tribe. as well as the two Ute Tribes, were threatened by the opinion's conclusion regarding the effect of acldltlonal water development In the San Juan Basin on endangered fish. After over a year of public meetings, the Service Issued a final biological opinion for the AlLP Project with an RPA. Subsequently, on October 25, 1991, a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") was signed by the United States Government, three states and four Indian tribes to protect releases from Navajo Reservoir for the benefit of the endangered fish, In the fall of 1992, a San Juan River Recovery Implementation Program was . executed (the "RIP") with the dual goals of the recovery of the endangered fish in the San Juan River and allowing water development to go forward, Without such a RIP, the Service had concluded that the endangered fish In the San Juan River were In imminent danger of "extirpation." 5 -.+--.......,-....