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. Statement on Animas-La By Governor Roy Romer May 9, 1990 Pla. 1. The settlement agreement arrived at after years of negotiation with the Indians, the State of Colorado, and the Department of Interior, is the modern day equivalent of a treaty. It deserves to be treated as a treaty, and it deserves to be implemented. The recent opinion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service means that most of the settlement terms cannot be met. Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was not a party to that treaty, the Department of Interior, (of which the Fish and Wildlife Service is a part) is, and the department has a trust responsibility to the Indians. Discharge of those responsibilities include implementing the treaty obligations. Construction of the Animas-La Plata project is the central feature of that treaty. At the very least, the interests of the Indians and the trust obligations of the United States, must be balanced against the biological opinion of the Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act. In addition, the Fish and Wildlife opinion will halt the planned water settlement of 100,000 acre feet of water for the Navajo Indian Irrigation project, and 40,000 acre feet of water for the Jicarilla - Apache Indians under terms of their settlement agreement. 2. The current problem of the Animas-La Plata project is a federal problem - created by federal agencies at odds with each other, and susceptible only to solution by Congress or federal agencies. The project has been proposed and supported by the Bureau of Reclamation, and is now in jeopardy because of an opinion by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Both agencies are in the Department of Interior, as is the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has overall trust obligations to Indian tribes. Thus, three federal agencies within the same department must resolve this issue. 3. There are major efforts underway to implement a very specific "recovery plan" for the endangered fish in the Upper Colorado River basin. The participants in that plan include Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and the U.S. Department of Interior, including the Bureau of Reclamation, the Wester Area Power Administration, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Among all states, Colorado has taken the lead in finding way to recover the endangered fish. We have spent an enormous amount of time and a considerable sum of money in this effort. Our work is not yet done. Because until recently, there were no endangered fish known to exist in the San Juan Basin, our efforts thus far have concentrated on the Colorado, Gunnison, the White, Yampa, and Green rivers.