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;-\ r Appendix II The Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act ;; , ~ 1';.,: '.0., , The Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act (poL. 100-585) provided more recent impetus for constructing the Animas-La Plata project. The act expanded the project's purposes to include the storage and delivery of water for the two Ute tribes. It settled the Ute tribes' claims by guaranteeing them the use of water from the project and providing $49.5 million in federal funds for tribal development. The act was based on two agreements signed earlier: an agreement on cost-sharing for the Animas-La Plata project and a final settlement agreement on the Colorado Ute Indians' water rights. In effect, these two agreements split the project into two phases. .?-. ,',,' '"' 'i ~.,. ~., :~-::< " Under the first phase, the project will store the tribes' water in Ridges Basin Reservoir and will physically convey the water the non-Indian users receive for various purposes. It will be primarily federally financed and is expected to cost about $550 million. This phase was originally scheduled for completion by 2000; the Bureau now estimates, barring further delays, that the Ridges Basin Dam will be completed in 2002. If certain features of the project's first phase! are not built by the year 2000, according to the final settlement agreement, ,:;.~ ;, , ',' "then by Janual}' 1, 2005, the Tribe,' in consultation with the United States as trustee, must elect either: (a) to retain the project reserved water right; or (b) to commence litigation or renegotiation of its pending reserved water rights claims on the Animas and La Plata Rivers, If the Tribe, in consultation with the United States as trustee, has not elected to commence litigation or renegotiation ofits pending claims . . . then: (a) the Tribe shall be deemed to have elected to retain its pI'Qject reserved water right; (b) the settlement of the Tribe's pending reserved and appropriative water rights claims on the Animas and La Plata Rivers. , . shall become final; and (c) the Tribe shall not be entitled to claim any additional reselVed water rights either on the Animas River or on the La Plata River.' 3;;r. The second phase, in which the project will physically convey water to the 1.:1>1 Ute Indian reservations, will be financed by the nonfederal project::tt partners and is expected to cost about $160 million. It is to be constructed when deemed practicable by one or more of these partners.3 The federal government will pay the Indian tribes' share of the project's costs nntil the water is first used. Water that the tribes receive for irrigation and for IThese facilities are the Ridges Basin Dam and Reservoir, the Long Hollow Tunnel, and the Dry Side CaIlaL 2fn. this context, the word "Tribe" refers to either the Southern Ute Indian Tribe or the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, 3rfhe nonfederal parties who signed the cost-share agreement are the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Indian TribeJ Colorado, Montezuma COlmty, the Animas-La Plata Water Conservancy District, the New Mexico Interstate Stream Conunission, and the San Juan Water Commission. P8I/e 13 GAOIRCED-96-1 ADlmas-La Plata Project