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<br />determine the effect of the project on the salinity of the Colorado River <br />and to estimate the cost for facilities to offset salinity effect of the <br />project. <br /> <br />Feasibility and advance planning costs to June 30, 1972 amount <br />to $1,314,228. <br /> <br />Present advance planning activities include a comprehensive re- <br />evaluation of the plan as formulated in the authorizing report. A re- <br />assessment of the area's needs is also being made. Current plan <br />formulation studies include a scaled-down development of both irrigation <br />and municipal and industrial water supplies. Attempts are being made to <br />reassess water requirements for the communities of Durango, Aztec and <br />Farmington. Water deliveries planned for Indian resource developments <br />are being revised. <br /> <br />The La Plata and Southwestern districts have joined in a <br />campaign to organize a new conservancy district covering all of La Plata <br />County, Colorado. The present La Plata Water Conservancy District will <br />be dissolved if the new district is organized. Efforts are also being <br />made to form a new conservancy district in New Mexico which would include <br />the municipal areas of Aztec, Farmington, Kirtland, etc., in the project <br />area. <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />Indian and Federal Water Riqht Problems <br /> <br />In November of 1972, the Justice Department on behalf of the <br />United States government and the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian <br />tribes of southwestern Colorado filed a civil action in the United States <br />District Court for the District of COlorado (Civil Action No. C-4497), <br />in which suit the United States seeks to have its water rights and the <br />water rights of the Indian tribes established in the San Juan River basin <br />in southwestern Colorado. Although these claims have not as yet been <br />defined in amount, they are known to represent large quantities of water. <br />Because of the legal precedents established by the United States Supreme <br />Court in Winters vs. United States, 207 U. S. 564, (1908) and Arizona vs. <br />California, 343 U. S. 546 (1963), it is expected that the water rights <br />claimed by the Indian tribes will receive priority dates as of the estab- <br />lishment of the various reservations, which priority dates will be senior <br />in right to all of the water rights now in use in the San Juan basin. <br /> <br />L, <br />f.\ <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />~~ <br />() <br /> <br />It appears that the town of Mancos, population 1,200, and the <br />surrounding Mancos reclamation project with an irrigated agricultural <br /> <br />-5- <br />