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I Hoz D,q/~ .s;:..IIJTllUeL Animas From Page One . "I do not regard this as aii abso- lute, final decision, but a serious piece of news that we are working on," Armstrong said. "It's., very, very bad news." .(.,~ . ,,' .. The $380 million Animas-La Pla- ta project would provide irrigation and municipal water to southwest-, ern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. It would also provide water to the Southern Ute and Ute Moun- tain Ute Indian tribes. In 1986, the two tribes agreed to accept water from the praject in settlement for water rights claims dating back more,than a century, The key feature of the project would be Ridges Basin Reservoir, planned about 12 miles southwest , of Durango. Steve Goldstein, chief spokes- I man for the U.S. Department of the Interior, said today that Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan attended a meeting with the Wildlife Ser- vice on Monday and agreed that a "jeopardy opinion" was needed. A "jeopardy" or "no alternative" opinion means the Wildlife Ser- vice is saying there is no alterna- tive to killing the project because the squawfish would likely be in jeopardy if the basin reservior were built. Third District Congressman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, D-Ignacio, said he was disappointed with the Wildlife Service decision and be- lieves it must continue looking for alternatives. ., He added that he expects a law- suit will result, no matter what happens next with the project. , "I don't think there's any ques- tion that there will be a suit filed," Campbell said. "If Fish and Wild- life found an alternative that satis- fies the tribes, I doubt it will satis- fy the Sierra Club:" The situation reflects the "gov- ernment bureacracy's lack of fore- sight," Campbell said. He recalled that it hasn't been very many years since the Wildlife Service d~mped poison in the waterways to kill what were then considered "trash fish" in an effort 5-~ -90 y to improve the habitat for trout and other game fish. This practice also occurred in 1962 on the San Juan River, 'The Animas 'River, a tributary to the San Juan, is the source of water for the Animas-La Plata project. "First they kill them, then they call them endangered and kill wa- ter projects, then they grow them in hatcheries," he said. "I don't know what to expect next in this comedy of errors." Herrick Roth, director oflhe Col- orado Forum, which helped push Animas-La Plata legislation through Congress and compromise on the project among the two Indi- an tribes, two groups of other wa- ter users and two states, called the- decision "an illogical use of gov- ernment authority." He complained about the federal agency being more concerned with "the minutiae of life rather than the basic elements of life." "It will really lJe ironic if the In- dians get raped by the squawfish," said Durango water attorney Sam Maynes. "I would think the people who have invested years of their lives would be distressed," said Hamlet "Chips" Barry, director of the Col- orado Department of Natural Re- sources. "It certainly is not good news for the project. I'm not quite ready to say that it (the project) will never' happen. ' , "One of my concerns is that this will cast serious doubt on the set- ';" tlement with the Indians," Barry , said, He questioned whether the Indian tribes would be required to comply with the Endangered Spe- cies Act if the tribes were success- ful in a suit to claim their water. John Murphy, president of the Animas-La Plata Water Conservan- cy District; said this morning that he hadn't had any word on what the Wildlife Service's decision would be, "We haven't heard a cussed thing," he said, "Security on that is tighter than D-Day. A person just can't comment until they see what they actually say," ' ,-1 " "