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<br />INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />BACKGROUND <br /> <br />The Colorado River Basin Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-537) authorized the Bureau <br />of Reclamation to construct the Dolores and the Animas-La Plata Projects. 1 The <br />Dolores Project (Figure 1) is scheduled for completion in 1996, at an estimated cost <br />of $568 million. Construction has not yet begun on the Animas-La Plata Project <br />(Figure 2), which is estimated to cost $653 million, The projects are generally <br />located in separate watersheds in the southwestern comer of Colorado, about <br />50 miles from each other. When completed, the projects will provide full irrigation <br />to 85,170 acres of land and supplemental irrigation to 43,950 acres,2 as well as water <br />for municipal and industrial development. Although the Dolores Project has two <br />small power plants, both projects will rely on the Colorado River Storage Project to <br />provide power for operations. <br /> <br />Construction of both the Dolores and the Animas-La Plata Projects is integral to <br />implementation of the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act of 1988, <br />under which the Colorado Ute Indian Tribes agreed to settle long-standing tribal <br />water claims3 in exchange for water from the Dolores and the Animas-La Plata <br />Projects. <br /> <br />ee <br /> <br />By reference, the Settlement Act incorporated two binding agreements: (1) the <br />Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Final Settlement Agreement and (2) the <br />Agreement in Principle Concerning the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights <br />Settlement and Binding Agreement for Animas-La Plata Cost Sharing. The <br />Settlement Act and agreements provided for the State of Colorado and local <br />interests in the States of Colorado and New Mexico to assist in financing a portion <br />of the costs of constructing the Dolores and the Animas-La Plata Projects and for <br />completing the Animas-La Plata Project in two phases. During phase one, about <br /> <br />'.-. <br /> <br />l;~ <br /> <br />;~, <br /> <br />tThe Act also authorized construction of the Central Arizona Project and three other projecls in <br />Colorado. <br /> <br />7t~ <br />q <br /> <br />2Full irrigation is defined as a water supply that brings new lands into production as the result of <br />project development, whereas supplemental irrigation is a supply of water to lands that have <br />historically been irrigated .but whose water supply has not been sufficient in either total quantity or <br />time of availability to produce optimum crop yields. <br /> <br />31ndian water claims were pursued on the basis of the Winters Doctrine, which provides that water <br />for development is an implied part of the body of law establishing Indian reservations. Since the <br />tribes have an 1868 Federal priority water right (which is senior to most of the water rights in the <br />region), Federal, state, tribal, and local entities negotiated a mutually agreeable settlement of the <br />claims to avoid a disruption of the current use of water in the region. <br /> <br />~-,' <br /> <br />1 <br />