BOARD01955

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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members of the La Plata board and the Southwestern board, we have
been able to go through this community education program and are now
in the position to go ahead with a greatly increased Animas-La Plata
Water Conservancy District.

In addition to that, the Bureau of Reclamation is presently going
through a rather expensive re-evaluation of the plan designed to
meet some of the objections which have been raised by the Office of
Management and Budget. Actually, the re-evaluation of the plan has
been taking place for some time to include the potential of a hydro-
electric project in the plan, sprinkler irrigation and to meet any
questions regarding the increased salinity on the Colorado River
and other factors which would minimize the environmental impact of
the Animas-La Plata project. I think most of you gentlemen are
familiar with the Animas River Canyon and some of the problems that
we are bound to run into in terms of the environmental impact. The
Bureau of Reclamation has done some comprehensive studies. In order
to continue with those studies and bring it down to a definite plan
report we need to have the advance planning funds.

I would now like to turn to a summary of the Indian water rights
problem which came about in November of 1972. I shouldn't say that
becau3e the problem really came about much sooner than that. It
came about when the United States Supreme Court decided the Eagle
County case, which I think that most of you are familiar with through
the memorandums which have been given to you by Director Sparks. The
Eagle County case precipitated the need and necessity for the Indians
in southwestern Colorado to have their water rights adjudicated and
they could see the danger of not having their water rights adjudi-
cated when the United States Supreme Court said, through the United
States government, "You must come into the state water courts and
have your water rights adjudicated." The Indians looked at that as
a direction to them that if the United States government was going
to have their water rights adjudicated, that perhaps also contrary
to the advice that they had received for many, many years from the
Solicitor and from the Justice Department that they did not need to
participate in water adjudication suits, that indeed after that
decision they might have to participate at some level. This precipi-
tated a request by both the Southern Ute tribe and the ute Mountain
Ute tribe, through the Justice Department in early 1971, to file a
lawsuit to protect the Southern Ute and the Ute Mountain Ute Indian
water rights, whatever they may be, in the San Juan basin of Colo-
rado. In November of 1972, the Justice Department did indeed file
such a lawsuit and they included in it not only a claim for the

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