WSP04888

• File Number: 8220.106
• Description: Animas-La Plata
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 11/1/1995
• Author: U. S. Gen. Acc. Off.
• Title: Status and Legislative Framework - Animas-La Plata Project
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

United States
General Accounting omce
Washington, D.C. 20548

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Resources, Conunumdty, and
Economic Development Division

RECEIVED
JAN 0 8 1996

B-260541

November 17, 1995

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The Honorable Bill Bradley
United States Senate

Dear Senator Bradley:

The Department of the Interior's Animas-La Plata project, to be
constructed by Interior's Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau), was designed
to store water and deliver it to arid areas and communities in
southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico, principally by
transferring water from the Animas River to the La Plata River basin.
Although the project was authorized by the Congress in 1968, more recent
impetus for construction came when the project was made the
cornerstone of a water rights settlement, which was legislatively
implemented by the 1988 Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement
Act. Under this act, the project will store and provide water for the
Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe; a
portion of the project is to be completed by the year 2000, or the
settlement could be revisited by the tribes. Before beginning construction
of the project, the Bureau was required under the Endangered Species Act
of 1973, as amended, to consult with Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service
(Service) to detennine whether the project would likely jeopardize the
continued existence of any endangered species.

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As agreed with your office, this report provides infonnation on the history
and status of the Animas-La Plata project (see app. D; the legislative
framework provided for the project by the 1988 Settlement Act (see app.
II) and the Endangered Species Act (see app.lII); the consultation
between the Bureau and the Service under the Endangered Species Act
(see app. IV); and the project's relationship to another congressionally
authorized project, the Navlijo Indian Irrigation Project (NllP) (see app. V).

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Summary

In May 1990, the Service issued a draft "biological opinion" stating that the
project, in depleting water from the Animas River and thereby reducing its
flow, would likely jeopardize the endangered Colorado squawfish in the
San Juan River, downstream from the project. The Bureau and the Service
consulted over the next several months to develop what is termed a
"reasonable and prudent alternative" to the project (referred to hereinafter
as the "alternative"), which the Service believes would not likely

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GAOIRCED-96-1 Anlmas-La Plata ProJect