WSP00339

• File Number: 8220.106.O
• Description: Animas La Plata Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 10/2/2003
• Author: Various
• Title: Animas La Plata Project Funding - Newspaper Articles - 10-02-03 through 09-06-04
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: News Article/Press Release

)urango Herald Online

002290

Page 3 of,

I A-LP at a glance I "I apologize for any 'finger pointing' that may have
. L PI .. been perceived," bureau regional director Rick Gold
What: The Animas a ata Project IS a. M . .
water-diversion and storage project. A wrote m an Aug. 13 lett.er ~,o Ute ountam a~tmg
plant being built on the Animas River in chaIrman Harold Cuthalr. That was not my mtent.
Durango will pump an average 57,100 Reclamation accepts the responsibility for placing
acre-feet of Animas water uphill each the original estimate in the FSEIS without sufficient
year to a new reservoir two miles west review."
in Ridges Basin, where a dam is being
built. The reservoir will store up to
120,000 acre-feet of water for release
into Basin Creek, and back to the
Animas, as needed. A 29-mile pipeline
in New Mexico will deliver A-LP water to
the Navajo Nation.

Who benefits: A 1988 federal law
promised Colorado's two Ute tribes a
long-term water supply to satisfy their
water-rights claims and thereby protect
existing water users. Most of A-LP's
water will belong to the two tribes.
Water districts in La Plata County and
San Juan County, N.M., will receive
smaller amounts for use by
municipalities including Durango,
Farmington, Aztec and Bloomfield. The
Navajo Nation will receive some water.
The reservoir will allow recreation,
including fishing and camping.

Cost: Construction is estimated at $500
million, up 48 percent from $338 million
previously.

Who pays: U.S. taxpayers through
annual congressional appropriations.
The tribes pay nothing. Non-tribal users
will pay for their water.

To learn more: Bureau of Reclamation.
[phone], or www.uc.usbr.gov,
then click on ALP Project.

An agreement between the bureau and the A-LP and
the San Juan water districts calls on the districts to
pay a fixed price for water from the reservoir and
"any reasonable and unforeseen" costs in building it.

The cost overruns, Rogers said, are umeasonable
and should have been anticipated by the bureau. If
the bureau takes all the blame for the increase, the
proponents would be off the hook for paying for it.

The A-LP Water Conservancy District referred calls
to its Denver-based lawyer, David Robbins.
Robbins, who also represents the Southwest Water
Conservation District, said attorney-client privilege
prevents him from saying what was discussed at the
meeting.

The bureau is conducting an internal review of the
cost increases. That review is expected to be
released later this month. It will be based in part on
information from proponents subject to the
nondisclosure agreement.

The project is a result of an out-of-court settlement
in 1986 to bring water to the Ute Mountain,
Southern Ute and Navajo tribes. The Animas-La
Plata Conservancy District and the San Juan Water
Commission also will get a share of the water.
Durango is negotiating to buy about 3,800 acre feet
of water from the project.

To tour A-LP: Call 385-6500.

Plant construction began last spring. The Weeminuche Construction Authority, owned by
the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, has won noncompetitive contracts to build the dam, pipeline
and pumping plant. Sky Ute Sand and Gravel, owned by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe,
won a noncompetitive contract to supply some materials.

Reach Herald Denver Bureau Chief Charles Ashby at [e-mail].

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