WSP01183 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

! ::J ANIMAS-LA PLATA PROJECT '''i Project Plan Contained in Authorizing Report The Animas-La Plata Project, located in Southwestern Colorado and North- western New Mexico, was authorized by Congress in the Colorado River Basin Project Act of September, 1968. It would develop the flows of the Animas and La Plata Rivers for municipal, industrial, irrigation, recreation, and fish and wildlife purposes. It would provide development of Indian resources and aid in the economic re-development of an area now characterized by high unemployment and depressed personal income. '! j , A ''t. The project would make 76,200 acre-feet of water available for municipal, domestic and industrial use at the communities and areas surrounding Durango,Colorado and AAtec, Farmington and Shiprock, New Mexico. It would develop 188,900 acre-feet of irrigation water to provide supplemental service to 25,600 acres of land that now have an insufficient supply and 1J6,520 acres of land that are idle or dry-farmed. Included in the above figures are 53,500 acre-feet of industrial water and 26,500 acre-feet of irrigation water identified for development of Indian resources. This water is divided approximately equal between the ute MJun- tain ute and Southern ute Tribes. 1 }: ,>,f ;\1 Of the 265,100 acre-feet of project water, 63,500 acre-feet would be used in New Mexico --- 50,000 acre-feet for irrigation and 13,500 acre-feet for muniCipal purposes. Of the 201,600 acre-feet used in Colorado, 3,700 would be made available to the existing Florida Reclamation Project through an exchange arrangement with the City of Durango. The authorized plan is shown on the map on page ii and statistics relating to this plan are shown on page 18. Indian Water Right Claims In November of 1972, the J\1stice Department on behalf of the United States Gove:rnment and the ute Mountain ute and Southern ute Indian Tribes of Southwestern Colorado filai a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado (Civil Action No. c-4497) in which suit the United states seeks to have its water rights and the water rights of the Indian Tribes established in the San J\1an River Basin in Southwestern Colorado. Although these claims have not as yet been defined in amount, they are known to represent large quantities of water. Because of the l,egal precedents established by the United states SUpreme Court in Winters vs. United States, 207 u.s. 564, (1908) and Arizona vs. california, 343 U.s, 51J6 (1963) it is expected that the water rights claimed by the Indian Tribes will receive priority dates as of the establishment of the various Reservati<Jns which priority dates will be senior in right to all of the water rights now in use in the San JUan Rasin. I i 15