WSP08026

• File Number: 8220.106
• Description: Animas-La Plata
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 1/1/1992
• Title: Correspondence regarding the Draft Supplement to the 1980 Final Environmental Statement
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: EIS

STATEMENT OF DIRECTOR
COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD
ANIMAS-LAPLATA PROJECT
NOVEMBER 13, 1992

My name is Daries C. Lile. I am Director and Secretary of the
Colorado Water Conservation Board, which is the water policy
planning agency for the State of Colorado.

The Animas-LaPlata Project (ALP) was originally conceived to
provide additional water for irrigation, municipal and industrial
purposes in the Animas and LaPlata river basins of southwestern
Colorado. Investigations into ALP were initially authorized in the
April 11,1956 Colorado River Storage Project Act (CRSP).
Authorization to construct ALP as a participating project under
CRSP is contained in Title V of the Colorado River Basin Project
Act of September 30, 1968. ALP is also subject to a
Congressionally approved interstate compact between Colorado and
New Mexico.

In 1976, the united States filed claims for federal reserved
water rights as trustee for the Ute Mountain utes and Southern Ute
Indian Tribes (Tribes). The claims covered a majority of the
streams in southwestern Colorado and could carry original
appropriation dates going back to the establishment of the
reservations in 1868. The potential disruption of these reserved
water right claims on the existing economy of southwestern Colorado
lead to equitable settlement negotiations which produced two major
agreements:

June 30, 1986 Agreement in Principle Concerning the
Colorado Ute Indian
Water Right
Settlement and
Binding Agreement
for Animas-LaPlata
Project Cost Sharing
between Colorado,
New Mexico,
Department of
Interior and the
Tribes.

Dec. 10, 1986

Colorado Ute Indian Water Right
Settlement Agreement between Colorado,
States, Tribes and 10 Local Entities
Colorado.

Final
united
within

The June 30, 1986 agreement called for enactment of both
Federal and State Legislation. Federal legislation was introduced
to the u.S. Congress in 1987 in the form of S1415 and HR2642 which
were subsequently passed into law as, "The Colorado Ute Indian
Water Rights Settlement Act of 1988." State legislation in the
form of SB142 was subsequently passed into law by the Colorado