WSP02305

• File Number: 8220.106
• Description: Animas-La Plata
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 12/1/1994
• Author: Bookman-Edmonston
• Title: Economic Impact Study - Animas-La Plata and Colorado Ute Water Rights Settlement Act
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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SECTION 2

BACKGROUND

PROJECT HISTORY

The early Reclamation investigation in the area now covered by the Animas-La Plata
Participating Project (ALP) dates back to the early 1900s. Feasibility investigations which
began in the late 1950s were completed by Reclamation, with a feasibility report dated
February 1962. The feasibility report looked primarily at long-term storage in a reservoir
on the Animas River upstream from Silverton, Colorado. The service areas were primarily
in the La Plata River drainage area with small portions extending into the Animas and
Mancos Rivers and an area directly tributary to the San Juan River. Initial studies were
primarily for full and supplemental service irrigation with a minor amount of water for
municipal and industrial supplies for the city of Durango. The Project, as envisioned, also
provided additional water for the Florida Project which was under construction at that time.

On May 4, 1966, the Secretary of the Interior submitted a: supplement to the 1962 feasibility
report to Congress that presented a modified plan for additional municipal and industrial
water and with an off-stream reservoir as the principal storage facility. The modified plan
was printed as House Document 436, 89th Congress, which provided the basis for Project
authorization. The current plan of development has chul1ged little since 1966.

The Project was authorized as one of five western Colorado projects in the Colorado River
Basin Project Act of 1968. In that Act, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior "to
proceed as nearly as practicable with the construction of the Animas-La Plata, Dolores,
Dallas Creek, West Divide, and San Miguel Participating Federal Reclamation Projects
concurrently with the construction of the Central Arizona Project, to the end that such
projects shall be completed not later than the date of the first delivery of water from said
Central Arizona Project."! Clearly the directive of Congress was not adhered to, because
construction has taken place on only two of the five projects (Dallas Creek and Dolores).
There has been no construction activity on West Divide or San Miguel Projects and, for the

! Colorado River Basin Project Act 1968, Public Law 90-537, Title V, Section 501(b)

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