PROJ00330

• Contract/PO #: C153510
• Contractor Name: Ute Mountain Ute Tribe
• Water District: 0
• County: Montezuma
• Bill Number: XB 99-999
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Feasibility Study

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1.4 History and Background

The Ute Mountain Ute Reservation is locate~ ~ithin the States of Colora~o, New
Mexico, and Utah. The Colorado portion of the reservation inclur!es
approximately 800 square miles of the southwestern corner of the State. The
land varies from mountainous regions to nearly desert-like terrain. The Town
of Towaoc houses approximately 90 percent of the Tribe's on-reservation
popul ati on. A porti on of the Town's current water supply comes from spri ngs
locate~ on the west si~e of Sleeping Ute Mountain, uphill and to the north of
Towaoc. Most of the Towaoc water supply is obtai ned from water del i vered
through the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company System, which conveys water
di verted from the Dolores Ri vel". There is a storage reservoi I" at the end of
the Rocky Ford Ditch from which the Tribe diverts the water allowed by their
ownership share in the company. This supply must be pon~e~, settle~,
filtered, chlorinated, and pumped to a storage tank located above Towaoc.

During the 1950's through the 1970's, the Unite~ States Bureau of Reclamation
(Bureau) planned and authorized the Dolores Project to provide irriqation,
muni ci pal, and i nr!ustri al water suppl i es for the southwestern regi on of the
state. Appendix A contai ns copi es of the Bureau 's Cortez- Towaoc Pipel i ne
Feasibility Design and Estimate, September 1975, an~ excerpts of the Dolores
Project'Definite Plan Report (DPR), April 1977, covering the proposer! pipeline.

The project plans inclu~ed provisions for ~elivering Dolores River water
regul ated by McPhee Dam an~ Reservoi 1", to the Ci ty of Cortez and Town of
Towaoc. Water allocations were made of 6200 acre-feet per year to Cortez and
1000 acre-feet per year to Towaoc. The Bureau I s updated DPR of the Dolores
Project in 1980 inclu~ed a Cortez-Towaoc pipeline to deliver the annual
allocations. Based on the Bureau's cost estimates and project repayment
provisions for municipalities, agreement could not be reached with the City of
Cortez or the Tribe to have the Bureau construct the water supply pipelines.

In the early 1980's the City of Cortez applied to the CWCB for long-term
financing to build the necessary pipeline from the Dolores Canal to the Cortez
water treatment plant, a distance of approximately 3.5 miles. Construction of

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