WSP07215

• File Number: 8220.106.I
• Description: Animas La Plata Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 4/1/1996
• Author: DOI-BOR
• Title: Animas La Plata Project - CO-NM - Final Supplement to the Final Environmental Statement - Volume I
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Summary

Phase II facilities that would be constructed include Southern Ute Dam and Reservoir;
Southern Ute Reservoir recreation facilities; La Plata Diversion Dam; the remaining
portion of Dry Side Canal, which would be extended to near the Ute Mountain Ute
Reservation boundary; New Mexico Irrigation Canal; Alkali Gulch, Ute Mountain,
Southern Ute, and Third Terrace Pumping Plants; and the laterals to serve the Phase II
lands.

All Project lands would receive a pressurized supply of water sufficient to operate
sprinkler systems, with the exception of Project lands above Dry Side Canal, which would
receive Project water by exchange. Delivery of M&I water for the Southern Ute Indian
Tribe could be at Ridges Basin Reservoir or Southern Ute Reservoir, and for the Ute
Mountain Ute Tribe at the end of Dry Side Canal. Delivery of all non-Indian M&I water
would be the same as in Phase I, Stage B.

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During Phase II, an average yearly diversion of 136,400 acre-feet would be diverted from
the Animas River at Durango Pumping Plant. Project diversions would also occur
downstream from Durango Pumping Plant on the Animas River and San Juan Rivers in
New Mexico, and on the La Plata River in Colorado, providing the Project water supply
of 191,230 acre-feet. Less water is diverted from the Animas River under Phase II at
Durango Pumping Plant as a result of diversion and storage facilities within the La Plata
River drainage during Phase II.

INDIAN WATER RIGHTS SETTLEMENT, COST SHARING,
AND PROJECT PHASING

Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act of 1988

The Project plays a critical role in the resolution of the Colorado Ute Indian water rights
t:nder the Winters Doctrine'. The Southern Ute Indian and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribes,
~eadquartered in Ignacio and Towaoc, Colorado, respectively, have reservation lands
within the Animas and La Plata Rivers drainages, as well as in drainage basins of other
streams tributary to the San Juan River. The Colorado Ute Indian reservations were
created in 1868 and, as such, the Tribes have a priority date for their water rights that
precedes the priority dates for most, if not all, of the non-Indian water rights.

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The State of Colorado has estimated the potential effect of outstanding Indian claims on
non-Indian water rights and predicted that all non-Indian irrigation in the Mancos and
La Plata River drainages could be eliminated if Colorado Ute Tribal water rights claims
were fully exercised (Lile, 1990). During dry years, the Tribes would exercise senior
water rights to virtually all available water on numerous rivers and streams in the
San Juan River Basin. It was estimated that more than 34,000 acres of land irrigated by
non-Indians could be adversely impacted if a settlement of Tribal water rights claims was
not achieved.

] The Winters or reserved water rights doctrine was established in Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564
(1908), and provides that the establishment of an Indian reservation impliedly reserves the amount of water
necessary for the purposes of the reservation.

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