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<br />I' <br /> <br />NEWS RELE.A..SE -. <br />FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <br />Thursday, Juli" 10, 1997 <br /> <br />T..\XP A YER A1~1) CITIZEN GRotJPS CALL FOR CONGRESS TO <br />ELlt'tlt'fATE ANlt\1AS-L.-\ PLATA F1JNDmG <br /> <br />WASHINGTON, D,C.--At a press conference today attended by leading Senate <br />and House opponents of the Animas-La Plata (ALP) project, citizens' groups hailed the <br />death of the .<\LP project and urged Congress to eliminate funding for it. "Everyone now <br />admits that ALP as we know it is dead," said Orion Urton of the A n;ma.~ River <br />Agricultural Water Users Association, a group of fanners ...no depend on Animas River <br />water for their livelihood" "It's time for Congress to pull the plug and stop funding it until <br />a reasonable alternative is developed." <br /> <br />Citizens opposed to the economically and environmentally harmful ALP <br />celebrated project proponents' abandonment of the old project. On Tuesday, July 8 <br />supporters of the ALP project announced that they were proposing a smaller project <br />called The Animas La Plata Reconciliation Plan, sometimes referred to as "ALP Lite." <br />"l.Jthough the new proposal has serious problems, the very fact that project supporters <br />felt compelled to offer an alternative demonstrates that after 30 years and $71 million in <br />appropriations even they recognize that the old ALP costS wo much, is too great a burden <br />on the environment, and doesn't deliver what was promised to the Ute tribes," said <br />Courtney Cuff, Director of the Green Scissors Campaign at Friends of the Ea..rth. <br /> <br />"Congress now can deauthorize the old ALP and send the Bureau back to the <br />drawing; board to come up with an economically viable alternative that makes more <br />sense," said Jill Lancelot of Taxpayers for Common Sense" <br /> <br />Environmental groups criticized the new proposal for .<\LP as carrying forward <br />many of the same problems as the old design. "ALP Lite still floods elk winter range, still <br />diverts a free-flov,ing river, still depletes flows in a Gold Medal Trout fishery and still <br />impacts rafting and boating in both the San Juan and Animas Rivers," said David Conrad <br />of the National 'Wildlife Federation. <br /> <br />"ALP is pure polluter pork," said Am1a Aurilio of the Public Interest Research <br />Group" "It harms the environment and wastes w.-payers' dollars. It is time for the <br />Congress and the Clinton Administration to come up with an environmentally and <br />economically sound alternative." <br /> <br />Native American citi:z:en groups also continue to urge Congress to adopt a <br />different approach" Sage Remington of the Souther::. Ute Grassroots Organization stated, <br />"Neither ALP nor ALP-Lite delivers any water to 3.:1Y reservation, and it's a sham to call <br />