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<br />001537 <br /> <br />'*' <br /> <br />preservation of instream water values have brought the promises oe <br />the 1922 Compact to a virtual halt. In order to keep Animas-La <br />Plata alive, the proponents not only had to extract substantial <br />state and local cost sharing from decidedly not wealthy farming <br />communities, but also they had to integrate that project into a <br />long-delayed ute Indian water rights settlement involving a dozen <br />rivers in Southwest Colorado. <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />( <br /> <br />(~ <br /> <br />And, once those steps were taken the project was hit with the <br />finding by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service ("FWS") that <br />its depletions would likely jeopardize the Colorado squawfish under <br />the authority of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As a result of <br />that finding, the parties spent a year negotiating a research <br />agreement which would on one hand permit the Animas-La Plata to go <br />forward on a limited depletion basis while on the other hand commit <br />the parties to limiting new development of San Juan Basin waters <br />until a more complete understanding of the squawfish and of the <br />basis for their survival were determined by a team of biologists. <br />Moreover, federal help to develop Colorado's.waters secured by the <br />1922 Compac.t was made dependent upon a reregulation of certain <br />waters in the Navajo Reservoir so as to recreate a historic water <br />regime in the waters of the Colorado.River running in the San Juan <br />Basin. The result was a final biological opinion issued by the FWS <br />in 1991 which permitted partial depletions out of the Animas-La <br />Plata pending this study. Asa follow up to that reasonable and <br />prudent alternative, the parties in New Mexico and Colorado entered <br /> <br />(( <br /> <br />,( <br /> <br />11 <br />