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Colorado Press Clipping Service 13~6 Glen3rm I'\a(e. De!l>C'f,C080l().1 JUJ.571.Sll7'FAXJI1.l-571.I80J "~i\ oroday. N..ember 27. 2003 THE DENVER POST ~ N c.v C::;. ,...... ** 3A arnlng about dam's costs ignored Animas-La Plata . report is released The dam is expected to cost $500 million. $162 million more than when it was approved by Congress in 2000. Neither figure includes the more than $100 million spent before then. Considered the last of the "great Western dams," Arumas-La Plata will tap the free-Howing Animas River near Durango. The report, ordered by Interior Secretary Ga\~ Norton m August after the cost overruns were dis- covered, saId officials are still reo ....iewing wa~'s to reduce the cost. The report provides few details about the employees' efforts to warn of potentially higher costs. Il said only that the employees By Mike Soraghan DenverPoslW8shlnglonBurcau WASHINGTON - Bureau of Reclamstion employees warned higher-ups lour years ago that they might be underestimating the cost 01 the Animas-La plata water project, 'out they were ignored, ac- cording to a Cederal report issued Wednesday. . Now the projed is ~O percent over budget because of no.bid con- tracts with Indian tribes, unfore- seen expenses and political tur. moil. the report said. were with the bureau's technical staff in Denver. They told the bu- reau's Durango office that a study of Ute proposed dam didn't have enough informalion for an in-depth coslestimate. ~Work appeared to continue without addressing this concern. ~ the report said. Those anonymous emp)oyees, said project critic Michael Black, ~should get a medal." He said facts were ignored be- cause project supporters were ea- ger to get the project OK'd by Con- gress. MThey lied to Congress about the cost to get it approved, then bur- ried into construction so it would be barder to get it slopped," said Black, spokesman Cor Taxpay- ers for the Animas River. But Black's oulrage is Dot ~hared by th.e officials with the most control over the project. The project got nods of approval Wednesday from Norton and U.s. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., the state's lone member of an appropriations commitlee, who has said he will get the additional money for the dam ~even ir I have La strangle somebody.~ And Commissioner of Reclama. tion John Keys denied Black's accu- sation. "The project was not low-palled La get it starled," Keys said. This year's $58 million install- ment for the project is on its way to President Bush's desk. No cost-benefit analysis has been done on the dam now under construction. It is exempt {rom sucb require- ments because it is considered a settlement of Indian water-rights claims for the Ute Lribes rather than a public-works project. The report found that a cost esti- mate done under a no-bid contracl bv the Ute Mountain Ute tribe faIled to take into account the in. creased costs of no-bid contracts with tribes, which are required un. der federal law. Those increased costs amount to $42 million, the report said. The tribe released a statement acknowledging omissions in its cost e,Umale but noting that other factors have contributed to the cost overruns. The Ute's contractor was rely'ing on data developed during a tumul- tuous period in the '90s, when the emphasis was on gelling environ- mental approval ror the controver- sial project ratber than nailing down the cost, tbe report said. The rest of Ute Stli2 million in- crease, Keys said. came largely from failure to realize that crews would bav!:! to bore into rock to build a pumping plant, the costs of diverting a gas pipelme, and cpst of rebuilding a county mad to higb- erstandards. "We at reclamation bear the reo sponsibility that we did not. go back and review that cost estimate earlier,~ Keys said.