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repaid by irrigators and power users and returned to the U.S. Treasury without interest. The water storage and supply made possible by construction of the Dolores and the Animas-La Plata Projects would ensure the availability of sufficient water supplies to meet the needs of both the Indian and the non-Indian communities in the foreseeable future, H certain facilities of the Animas-La Plata. Project are not completed by January 1, 2000, the Colorado Ute Tribes have the option of forfeiting project water allocations and of resuming litigation regarding their water rights under terms of the Settlement Act. In 1990, the U,S, Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the proposed plan as detailed in the Bureau's 1979 Definite Plan Report for the Animas-La Plata Project would endanger the survival of the Colorado squawfish, Subsequently, the Service and the Bureau agreed to perform a joint 7-year study of the Project's potential impact on the squawfish. As part of this agreement, the Bureau would be permitted to construct the Ridges Basin Dam, the Animas River pumping plant, and the water delivery conduit. However, the use of these facilities and further Project development would be limited until the completion of the 7-year study. In addition, the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund successfully challenged the validity of the Bureau's 1980 Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Project in a 1992 lawsuit. As a result, initiation of any Project construction is contingent upon public acceptance of the supplement to the 1980 Environmental Impact Statement being prepared by the Bureau to settle the lawsuit, which, along with the 7-year study, could adversely affect the Bureau's development of the Project as currently planned and its ability to meet mandated time frames. ~. OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE The objective of the audit was to determine whether (1) the Bureau's methods and procedures for allocating and recovering reimbt:rsable costs of the Dolores Project complied with Reclamation law4 and Instructions and adequately protected the Government's interests and (2) the Bureau's authorized plan for developing the Animas-La Plata Project remained economically and financially viable and provided the Government with a cost-effective alternative for meeting its water resource commitments, '.'. . c. t~- ~;: ; ,:\: ~ To accomplish our objective, we reviewed (1) planning documents, including the Bureau's initial Definite Plan Reports for the Dolores (April 1977) and the Animas-La (September 1979) Projects, along with special reports and supplements .J 4Reclamation law is a term used to refer to the total body of public laws governing the reclamation program, beginning with the Reclamation Act of 1902 and including all laws amending and supplementing the Act. 5