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-"I Hlgb Cmmtry New. - May 21, 19!JO. 7 Endangered fish halt a Colorado dam Plans to veto a major Colorado water project to save twO endangered fish species have erupted into a bitter confrontation in this water-hungry state. On May 8, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials released a draft study concluding that the proposed Animas-La Plata water project in southwestern Col- orado would severely threaten the con- tinued existence of the federally endan- gered Colorado squawflSh and the rare razorback sucker. The revised biological opinion came one day before scheduled ground- breaking on the $582 million project. Under the Endangered Species Act, it stops everything dead in its tracks. The agency's decision stunned project proponents and has unleashed a fuestorm of protest against the Endan- gered Species Act. But Carse Pust. mueller, the National Audubon Society's representative to the Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program, says it should not have come as a sur- prise. The fish were discovered in 1987, she says. but the Bureau of Reclamation and project backers ignored the problem until Y18h and Wildlife forced the issue "'is spring (HCN.41919'J). Sen. BilJ Armstrong, R-Colo., accused Fish and Wildlife of engaging in fantasy. not policy, telling the Grand luncti,.tn Dai.ly Sentinel that the agency had" men leave of their senses." Sam Maynes, legal counsel for the Southwestern Water Conservation District and the Animas~La Plata Water Conservancy District. said, "The Endan- gered Species Act is a drastic option... It shuts down the entire San Juan River [basin],' "r UUnk their biolo~y is a liUle bit shaky." Maynes continues. "It is very suspect" Project proponents also say the Fish and Wddlife decision violates water settlements with four Native American tribes. The .settlement with the Ute Mountain Utes, the Southern Utes, the Navajo and the 1 icarilla Apache took 30 years 10 negotiate, and has already been approved by Congress. The agreement to build a dam "is the modern-day equivalent of a treaty," said Colorado Gov. Roy Romer. "At the very least, the interests of the Indians and the trust obligations of the United States must be balanced against the bio- logical opinion of the Fish and Wildlife PI~c.oN ONJ-Y H:;:::ol~ ~f'l-E..:t ~ p,6M!> ~~ ~ ~ ~ . -r-- deplete 154,800 acre feet of water a year from the basin, and, combined with existing projects, lake up to 60 percent of spring flows critical to the fish. Buter- baugh has asked to delay construction for five to 10 years to study the needs of the fish and then reconsider alternatives. Environmental groups, which have fought the project for more than a decade. say the alternative should be to dramatically scale down Animas.La Plata. As proposed, only 15 percent of the project water would go to the tribes while the rest would irrigate surplus crops on 85 square miles of non-Indian land and supply drinking water to sever. at Four Comers towns. "What they are trying to do is mask an old-fashioned Western irriga- tion project under the guise of settling Indian water claims," said Jeannie Englert a founding member of the Tax- T1AVf'It'lI; n. the Anig.... I . DI.... D.e_ dum, She says the Indian water needs can be met with a much smaller and less expensive project: 'i'he tragedy is they are pining one indigenous Native Ameri- can species against lUlO\her, and it's all unnecessary." As proposed, the Animas-La Plata project would draw water from the Ani- mas and La Plata rivers, both tributaries to the San Juan, through an intricate net- work of two dams, seven pumping sta- tions and 200 mBes of canals. It is expected to take 10 years to build and would create 1,150 construction jobs. - Stev~ Hinchman ~ 1 HOTLINE A real asb bole It took only an hour for a Deadwood, S.D., jury to convict James Rankin Brown Sr., of peIjury. But it has taken South Dakota a lot longer to fig. ure out how to deal with 270.000 tons of sewage ash Brown dumped in the Slate (HeN, S/t/88), In 1986. the Slate of Minnesota paid Brown's firm, Con- solidated Management Company, over $9 million to ship the incinerated sewage from the twin cities of Minnea~ polis-St. Paul to a site near Edgemont. S.D. There Brown's company was to build a plant to recover precious metals from the ash. But the company went bankrupt and all South Dakota recov. ered from the deal was a hard lesson. A year and a half and $1.25 miUlon later, the state finally buried its 270,OOO-ton mistake in the prairie. As for Brown, the jury found him guilty of lying to the South Dakota Board of Minerals and Environment. He said he had a bache- lor's degree in geology from McMastu University in Canada; however, the University says he never graduated. ~~ ~ -~ Service." Romez has indicated he may ask a special federal panel, dubbed the "God Committee," to grant an exemption from the Endangered Species Act. Only one such exemption has ever been granted, for the Gray Rocks reservoir in Wyoming. Sens. Bill Annstrong, nm WlIth, D-Colo., and Pete Domenici, D-N.M., also intervened with Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan, who oversees both Fish and Wildlife and the Bureau of Indian AffaiIs. Wirth says Lujan ordered Fish and Wildlife back to the drawing board to find some "reasonable and prudent alternative" to build the project and still spare the nsh. In a pair of copyrighted inter- views with the Denver Post and the Daily Sentinel, Lujan promised that the dispulC would be resolved in 9. Dl9.ttr:r of weeks. Otherwise, he said. he may have to go to Congress to override the Endan- gered Species Act. Fish and Wildlife biologists say there is no easy solution. Biologists in the field are under a gag order, but regional director Galen Butelbaugh in Denver said, "We already spent two months to work out reasonable and pru- dent alternatives and we couldn't" Buterbaugh says the recently dis- covered 27 rare ftsb in the San Juan are one of two reproducing populations of squawfish in the world and a new but critical element in the survival of the species in the wild. Animas-La Plata, he says. would Observatory constructian postponed A federal judge Jast month post- poned the constructioo of an observato- ry complex by the University of Arizona atop Mt. Graham. The mountain near. Saffon:l, Ariz., is habiw for the endan- gered red squirrel. The COW1 dec.isioo to delay construction for four months fol. lowed years of wrangli.ng between the university, the state congressional de~ gation and local environmenraJ groups. 'P.f& "illlnG!r'tLAl!it!J1nleilr# JIll' university from complying with the Endangered Speci.. AcL The Iegislalion was based on an opinion by the U.S. FISb and Wikllife Savi.cc tbal1he 1llree proposed telescopes and relaled suuc- totes would nol jeopudize the squind. The Legal Defense Fund, however, argued Lhat the agency was coerced into issuing a premature opinion. U.S. District Judge Alfredo C. Marquez said a four-month delay win give the agency more time for a thorough review of Ihc species of red squirrel and its chances for survival. That decision failed 10 sat- isfy the university, which plans to appeaI the case.