BOARD01955

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

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non-Indian water users. That is the problem we have. In addition
to those three streams that I have mentioned, we have also the
Animas River, the Piedra River, the San Juan River, and several other
small tributaries which all run through either the Southern Ute
Indian reservation or the Ute Mountain ute Indian reservation and
from which the Indians are certainly going to be entitled to some
water rights under the doctrine set forth in Winters vs. the United
States and the Arizona vs. California cases in the United States
Supreme Court.

The Animas-La Plata project will provide extensive benefits in terms
of water to both the Southern Ute and the Ute Mountain Ute Indian
tribes. As originally authorized, before the Indian water right
problem became a reality, the project would provide for a total of
80,000 acre-feet for development of the Indian resources. The
Southern Utes and the Ute Mountain Utes both have extensive coal
resources in the general area of the Four Corners which they can use
either for electricity, for coal gasification or coal liquefication.
It represents one of the real economic opportunities that these two
tribes have today to continue with tribal developments and self
dependence. When the lawsuit became a reality, the Bureau of Recla-
mation immediately began studying additional Indian participation
and development in both of these projects to the end that we would
be able to maximize the Indian participation in the Animas-La Plata
project. It represents a practical solution to a problem that is of
concern not only to the people of the San Juan basin, but certainly
to the people of the state of Colorado as evidenced by the fact that
this board as recently as two months ago adopted a resolution
requesting an additional money appropriation to represent the water
users of the state in not only this litigation, but also the litiga-
tion in water divisions 4, 5 and 6 of the state of Colorado on the
other federal water claims.

At this time in order to give you a view of both the non-Indian water
user who faces a real tragedy and also a viewpoint from an Indian
leader in southwestern Colorado, I would like to introduce to the
board at this time Mr. Noland Alexander, the president of the Mancos
Water conservancy District, to have him tell you a little bit about
the Mancos water reclamation project and what the possibility of
this lawsuit does to the area of Mancos, Colorado. Noland.

Mr. Alexander: I am Noland Alexander, the president of the Mancos
Water Conservancy District. The project was authorized in 1948, the
Jackson Gulch project, and at that time the water users made a

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