WSP01548

• File Number: 8220.106
• Description: Animas-La Plata
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 7/1/1987
• Author: EPI
• Title: An Analysis of the Animas-La Plata Project - Durango-Colorado - July 1987
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

La Plata project.

In the meetings with the Tribal representatives the picture
of needing water so Tribal members will no longer have to
truck water in or carry it to their homes is presented. So
is the picture of developing an agricultural base for export
of agricultural products- leavinq aside the fact that their
non-Indian neighbors will be producing the same products
for some of the same markets. And last but not leas~ is
the picture presented in testimony of developing energy
resources.

Even though the EIS on the project could not address
specific concerns about such development because there was
at the time no specific plan-by the Tribes, a "hypothetical
analysis of impacts" was included.

.If the Southern utes were solely interested in mining the
coal and having it marketed in the Southwest, they would
need 625 acre-feet of water annually for a 9.1 million ton
run-of-mine coal development operation which would be 35
years in operation.

Similarly, the ute Mountain utes would only need 65
acre-feet of water annually for an 89l,000 ton mining
operation that would operate for 35 years.

In both cases an expanded rail spur would be necessary in
order to move the coal.

If the Southern utes were interested in developing a coal-
fired steam generation operation (four 435 meqawatt units
with a 35 year plan life), that operation would need 1,000
acres of land and 26,000 acre-feet of water annually (that
is to say, all of the M&I water they would receive from
the Animas La Plata Indian Water Rights Agreement). The
construction time would be 4 years per unit for a total of
11 years commencing the first year of water delivery from
the project. The operation would need 5.1 million tons of
coal per year.

The ute Mountain utes proposal calls for one 275 megawatt
unit, requirinq 250-500 acres of land with 4,100 acre-feet
of water per year (one-half of the ute Mountain ute M&I
yield from the Agreement). The unit would use 810,000 tons
of coal a year.

A Coal Gasification scenario inVOlving a 250 million
cubic-foot-per-day Lurgi coal gas plant was also examined.
Only coal reserves removable by strip mining operations
on the Southern Ute Reservation are sufficient for .uch a
plant. This would take 2 and one-half years"'~o cons~ruct
plus 2 years to construct the mine and require 8.8 million

38