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<br />4142 <br /> <br />of the Interior signed a binding cost-share agreement for the <br />construction of the Animas-La Plata Project. This agreement also <br />included the parameters of the Indian water rights settlement <br />which were, in essence, the Agreement in Principal reached by <br />Colorado and the Ute Indian Tribes in March. At the time the <br />parties anticipated merely "clarifying" the March Agreement in <br />Principal. <br />The anticipated "clarification" turned into six more months <br />of intense negotiations on almost every issue, with leasing the <br />central issue. Interior had a national agenda for these Indian <br />settlements and the Colorado Ute Settlement did not fit, the mold. <br />Often Colorado and the two Ute Tribes were aligned against the <br />federal trustee. Fortunately, all parties persevered, and on <br />December 10, 1986, the Final Settlement Agreement was signed by <br />the Departments of the Interior and Justice, the State of Colo- <br />rado, the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, the Southern Ute Indian <br />Tribe, and various water conservancy districts, municipalities, <br />ditch companies, and water users in Colorado. The State of New <br />Mexico did not need to sign this agreement because it did not <br />involve New Mexico cost-sharing or New Mexico water rights. <br /> <br />III. Final Settlement Agreement <br /> <br />The Final Settlement Agreement is a complex and lengthy <br /> <br />-8- <br />