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<br /> <br /> <br />Protesters at what was 10 be the groundbrea.ktng ceremony for the Anlmas-La plata project. Construction never actually started. <br /> <br />The di~very of twO endangcted fISh <br />species oownslroam of the projectcreatc.d <br />a se<:ond crisis. The Bureau would have <br />ignored lhe fish, bot a Jeuet from the Sier- <br />ra Club Legal Defense Fund forced the <br />agency 10 invoke thc Endangered Species <br />AcL That ultimately led to a U.S. Fish and <br />Wildlife Service ruling !hat Animas-La <br />Pl.a1a could not be builL <br />Thc ALP coalilion aCled swiflly, <br />putting together a complical.ed recovery <br />plan for lhe fish. With the help of then <br />lnteriorSecrctary Manuel Lujan and the <br />Colorado and New Mexico congression- <br />al delegations, !he coalition bullied the <br />U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service into <br />delaying its ruling until a seven-year <br />sludy could be conducted <br />lnaddition.lheBureau dRoclamation <br />JrofIlised to provide 300,000 acre-feet of <br />water a year from the Navajo Irrigation <br />ProjccttoreplaceooywarerlosttoAnifnas. <br />La Plaia during lhe sludy period, and, <br />JXltef1tially,forever. Finally, the coalition <br />agreed to put off building half of Phase I <br />until aftct the seven-ytar study. Then, if <br />Fish and Wildlife 8pJlI'O't'ed,1he restcfthe <br />~jectwouldbecompleted. <br />Enduring, but unbuilt <br />Inshort,lhehalf-cenlur)'-mgeffonlO <br />build Anima.<;.La PIMa ranks among the <br />most enduring and weU-led political move- <br />ments in thehistoryofWeslfmwatec. <br />That's why Sam Maynes, Leonard <br />Burch and company arc stunned 10 find <br />that Animas.La Plata is suddenly in deep <br />troublc, and may never get built. <br />While there hasalwaysbcen local <br />opposition to ALP, national environmental <br />groupsgenCllllly stayed Out of the fighL <br />As 8 result, 1I0onc has ever mounted a <br />seriouschalkngetol11eprojccL <br />The late 1980s changed that. The <br />EPA velO of Two Forks Dam - based <br />in part on environmentalisls' argumenl~ <br />that the massivc dam wa<;n't needed _ <br />broke a barrier lhat had kepi the environ- <br />mental community oul of major waler <br />policy decisions in Colorddo. <br />And when Ihe Sierra Club Legal <br />Defense Fund inlervened in Animas-La <br />Plaia on behalf of the endangered Col- <br />orado squawfish, it and other environ- <br />menial groups realized thai ALP was not <br />impregnable. <br /> <br />Under cover of its Indian blanket, <br />says Legal Defense Fund lawyer Drew <br />Caputo, Animas-La Plata is a disaster. In <br />fact, Caputo and co-counsel Lori Potter <br />found so many problems that they say <br />challenging the project is 8 lurkey shoot. <br />Since 1990, the Legal Defense Fund <br />has twice slopped the long-awaited <br />groundbreaking on Animas-La Plata <br />with legal actions. In 1992 CapUla and <br />Potter filed four lawsuits against the <br />Bureau and emerged with four viclOries, <br />proving that the Bureau had violated at <br />least five separate federnl Illwstrying to <br />push the massive $640 million project <br />through. Cases included violations of the <br />Clean Water Act, the Freedom of Infor- <br />mation Act, the Endangered Species Act, <br />the AdminiSlf81ive Procedures Act and <br />the National Environmental Policy Act, <br />"They break the law and we caleh <br />Ihem," says Caputo. "Animas-La Plaia <br />makes no economic or environmental <br />sense, and the only way the Bureau will <br />be able to move forward is to keep trying <br />to break the law." <br />As a result of the lawsuits, it may be <br />years before project sponsors. Qr the <br />Bureau can do lhe engineering, ecooom- <br />icandscientific alUdies 10 put the project <br />on a finn foundation. <br />Thus far, the Bureau has not found <br />bedrock. For example, in court last year <br />the Bureau agreed to update its 1980 <br />final environmental impact statement on <br />ALP. But the draft supplemental EIS <br />rcleased last October was so bad that the <br />Environmental Protection Agency <br />flunked the document and warned that <br />unless the Bureau rewrole the EIS yet <br />again, it would consider the agency in <br />violation of the National Environmental <br />Policy and Clean Water acts. <br />CapUIO didn't wait for the Bureau 10 <br />respond: He immediately gave the agen- <br />cy 6O-day notice of intent to sue if it pro- <br />ceeded with construction of any aspect <br />OflheprojCCL <br />In addition to a sue, sue, sue <br />approach, the environmcntal groups arc <br />trying 10 talc:ethe offensive by putting an <br />alternative to ALP on the lable, just as <br />Ihe critics of Two Forks Dam did. To <br />give their alternative credibility, the <br />Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and its <br />continued on: next page <br /> <br />Environmental attorneys say <br />that challenging Animas-La <br />Plata is a turkey shoot. <br /> <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />"'IMOavloft <br />After a court order hated the planned constrnctlon start, BuRee enginurs <br />faked the Anknas-la Plata groundbreaklng by blowing up a hlJlslde. <br />High Country News - March 22, 1993 _ 11 <br />