WSPC02054

• File Number: 8064.100
• Description: Ute Tribes
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 9/1/1989
• Author: Harris Water Enginee
• Title: Ute Mountain Ute Tribe - Delores Project Irrigation - Small Reclamation Loan Application Report
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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2644

UTE MOUNTAIN UTE TRIBE

DOLORES PROJECT IRRIGATION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Relationship to Water Riqhts Settlement

The ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm and Ranch Enterprise
requests a Small Reclamation Loan in the amount of $18,323,000.
The purpose of the loan is for on-farm development of 8,028
acres of land to be irrigated from the Dolores Project and to
supply potable water to the Ute Mountain Reservation for the
first time. (Figures I-A and 1-8)

The Dolores Project, being constructed by the Bureau of
Reclamation, will provide 22,900 acre feet or irrigation water
and 1,000 acre feet of M&I water to the Ute Mountain
Reservation under the terms of the "Colorado Ute Indian Water
Rights Settlement of December 10, 1986" and the "Colorado Ute
Indian Water Rights Settlement Act of 1988" (P.L. 100-585, 102
Stat. 2973).

In addition to providing the Tribe with water allocations
from the Dolores Project, the Settlement also required the
initiation of construction on the Aminas-La Plata Project which
will provide the Tribe with 6,000 acre feet of M&I water and
26,300 acre feet of water to irrigate an additional 12,000
acres.

The Settlement also provides for a $40.5 million
Development Fund to assist the Tribe in the development of
Dolores and Animas-La Plata Project water allocations. As their
contribution to local cost sharing on the Animas-La Plata
Project, the Tribe agreed to build the laterals that were
originally project features out of the Development Fund at a
cost of $49 million in 1986 dollars.

In exchange for water allocations out of the Dolores and
Animas-La Plata Projects, and the Development Fund, the Tribe
agreed to release water rights claims on streams in the San Juan
Basin as well as damages claims against the united States for
building Jackson Gulch Reservoir (a Reclamation Project) which
dammed up the only major stream running through the Reservation
without providing water to the Tribe in violation of the
Winter's Doctrine. (Chapter 1)

Financial Proqram

Due to lost interest resulting from delays in appropriating
the Development Fund, the direct financing of the municipal
pipeline by the State of Colorado (with no accrual of interest)
and the cost-sharing requirement that the Tribe finance the

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