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000469 basin areas, par~icularly California, before the upper States could appropriate what they believe to be their fair share. Ari~ona v California, supra at 555. Five years after the Supreme Court's confirmation of the national commitment to develop the waters of the Colorado River for the benefit of all Colorado River States in accordance with the allocations of the 1922 Colorado River Compact, Congress enacted the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968, 43 U.S.C ~ 61(a)(1). In the Project Act of 1968, the Secretary of the Interior was directed to "proceed as nearly as practicable with the construction of the Animas-La Plata .... project concurrently with the Central Arizona Project, to the end that such project(s) shall be completed not later than the date of the first delivery of water from the Central Arizona Project." The 1968 legislation was specifically designed to implement the allocation of water between the Upper Basin and Lower Basin states which was negotiated in the 1922 Colorado River Compact. See Arizona v. Ca~ifornia, 373 U.S. 546, 553 (1963). Moreover the 1968 legislation carried forth the United States commitments of 1863, 1868 and 1895 to provide waters to the Ute Indian Reservations on a timetable which would assure water be made available to the Ute Indians during the same period when the much larger Central Arizona Project providing water to Indians and non-Indians in Arizona would be under construction. Part Five The Aqreement in Princiole extinquishes damage claims against the United States. In addition to eliminating the necessity for expensive, time consuming and disruptive Winters rights litigation, the Agreement in Principle will avoid substantial damage claims by the two Tribes and local non-Indian water users against the United States. The fOllowing claims will be foregone if the settlement agreement is implemented. A. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's Mancos Project Claim In undertaking the development of the Mancos Project, which involved a significant diversion of direct flow water from the Mancos River to the Jackson Gulch Reservoir for the benefit of non-Indian farmers and for the benefit of the United States, in its capacity as owner and operator of the Mesa Verde National Park, the United States breached certain duties owed to the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe. While not obligated to affirmatively develop all of the water resources which could be utilized by the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, the United States as trustee to the Ute Mountain Indians is under a duty not to engage in a course of 7