Heavy equipment takes a breather from work on A-LP last week in Ridges Basin./Photo by Patrick Brawley.

A mere 2.5 miles from downtown Durango, earth movers and explosives have been hard at work for the past several months, and though out of view and earshot, construction on the Animas-La Plata project has been proceeding roughly according to plan. In spite of the appearance that a large reservoir and diversion will become permanent Durango fixtures, a set of lawsuits have been proceeding through water court with the hope of defeating a project that is already underway.

The real push for A-LP came in 1868 when an agreement was struck to compensate Indian tribes with water rights. In 1968, A-LP was first authorized for construction by the U.S. Congress as a way of fulfilling that century-old agreement. At that time, the A-LP project was proposed as a diversion of water from the Animas and La Plata rivers to principally serve the irrigation needs of the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Indian tribes. The project was never built.

The latest incarnation

In 1988, Congress passed the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, which specifically quantified the amount of water owned by the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain tribes. A-LP then went through more challenges and revisions until a scaled down version, coined “A-LP Lite,” was authorized by Congress in 2000. The changed project included a 120,000-acre-foot (more than 39 billion gallons) reservoir 2.5 miles southwest of downtown Durango in Ridges Basin. A pumping plant located near Smelter Rapid and Santa Rita Park would siphon up to 280 cubic feet per second from the Animas River and pump it uphill to feed the reservoir. Water stored in the reservoir would no longer be used for agriculture but to serve yet-to-be-determined municipal and industrial needs in New Mexico and Colorado.

Construction on this project got underway earlier this summer in the expansive natural bowl of Ridges Basin. Crews have completed the construction of an inlet sleeve, which will eventually hold the pipeline to the pumping plant. Presently, work is being done to excavate the dam outlet works, which will enable water to be released down Basin Creek and back into the Animas.

An expansive view of the area slated to become A-LP’s reservoir./Photo by Patrick Brawley.

Blockage in the funding flow

“We’d have a hell of a lot more going on if we had more money,” said Pat Schumacher, the Bureau of Reclamation’s projects manager for A-LP.

Last year, $16 million for the project was budgeted through early October. President Bush’s proposed budget sets aside an additional $33 million for the 2003 fiscal year which began at that time. However, the budget has yet to pass, and A-LP and Schumacher’s crews have been operating on a continuing resolution, whereby week-to-week funding is awarded based on last year’s allotment.

Expressing his frustration with the financing stream, Schumacher commented: “It’d be nice if we could get $250 million and put it in a bank somewhere and draw money as we need it. We’d be able to build this project in five years. But as it stands, we’ve got a seven-year construction schedule where we’re looking at between $50 and $70 million a year once we get going.”

Schumacher said the Bureau of Reclamation is looking toward next year’s excavation of the pump plant site, which will include blasting and serious earthwork and affect day-to-day life in Durango more significantly. He also said he has his eye on the targeted completion date of spring 2008.

Keeping the fight alive

However, a number of people have different plans for Ridges Basin. While A-LP controversy has been quiet of late, at least one group is undertaking action to defeat the project.

The Citizens’ Progressive Alliance, a Colorado and New Mexico watchdog group, is currently pursuing six separate lawsuits against the Department of Interior and the Animas-La Plata project.

The most significant of the alliance’s legal actions alleges that the Bureau of Reclamation has failed to do the necessary upkeep on the A-LP water rights, also known as diligence. In fact, the group has asserted that the bureau has failed to do diligence on the water since A-LP’s initial approval in 1968. Specifically, the alliance’s Philip Doe noted that the rights were initially agricultural and have not been changed into municipal and agricultural water rights. In addition, he said that the point of diversion has changed since 1968 but not been officially adjusted on the water right. As a result, Doe said that legally, there is no water for the reservoir that’s currently being constructed in Ridges Basin.

“The Bureau of Reclamation is going to spend money, and a bunch of money, even though they don’t have a water right," he said.

A reservoir with no water?

Doe said that the notion that construction is underway is distressing, particularly considering there is a current legal challenge that could end the project.

“You’d think if there was a question about water rights, they might wait to see what the opinion of the court is,” Doe said.

“They could literally be building a reservoir that they have no water for.”

Sunny Maynard, the attorney pressing the group’s lawsuits, commented: “The Ridges Basin reservoir has no water right decreed for it. There are really lots of nuts-and- bolts water issues that it appears opposition groups have never gotten into.”

The alliance was supposed to have a day in court this week. However, Maynard said
that the Bureau of Reclamation produced a last minute expert report and delayed the hearing.

“They’ve violated every pre-court disclosure deadline we’ve had,” she said.

The Bureau’s Schumacher agreed that the nature of the water right has changed.

"It’s all municipal and industrial now,” he said. “There’s no irrigation in this project any more.”

However, he said that the court, and specifically District Judge Gregory Lyman, will have to determine if the bureau has done its homework. Schumacher said he’s not concerned about the trial’s outcome.

“It’s really up to the water court to decide,” he said. “But I don’t have any fears about a lack of water rights, particularly because of the track record. The state has always been supportive of this project.”

History repeating itself

The San Juan Citizens’ Alliance is one opponent of A-LP that’s currently taking a wait-and-see approach. Chuck Wanner, the group’s water-issues coordinator, said, “I don’t think we’re at the point of trying to sue somebody every time they try to turn a
shovelful of dirt.”

However, he noted that the project’s financial ills could buy the opposition some time. “The project definitely isn’t going as they planned,” he said. “Maybe between now and the time the funding comes through, we’ll get lucky.”

Michael Black, of Taxpayers for the Animas River, has been an outspoken opponent of the Animas-La Plata and said that he concurs with the reasoning behind the lawsuit challenging the A-LP water right.

“To date, they do not have that water right,” Black said. “It’s now strictly a municipal
and industrial water right, and they never changed that agricultural water right.”

Black also said that funding problems may be just the ally that the local opposition needs.

He noted that while he is not an advocate of war in Iraq, military action could provide unexpected help.

“I’ve seen this scenario unfold before,” Black said. “The exact same thing happened
in 1968 when the project was first authorized. The Vietnam War came along, and A-LP was thrown out. I think history will repeat itself.”

While Schumacher said he’s not concerned about the diligence case, funding does cause him some unease. “That’s what is really hurting us,” he said. “It hasn’t affected our timeline yet because we’re being pretty creative. It hasn't affected any
flexibility in our schedule.”

And while the Citizen’s Progressive Alliance awaits its day in court, crews will be back on schedule, working 9-to-5 through the winter in Ridges Basin and continuing construction on the reservoir.