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December 27, 2001 By Jim Mimiaga Massive McPhee Reservoir and its sprawling delivery systems cost half a billion dollars to build, but only a fraction of that is owed by local taxpayers, reports show. The project’s taxing and operations entity, the Dolores Water Conservancy District, is obligated to pay back $18 million of the total $540 million price tag. Since the project’s completion in 2000, the district has paid off $2 million. The $16 million balance will be reimbursed to the federal government under a staggered, 50-year repayment plan with revenues from irrigation users, mill-levy taxes and municipalities such as Cortez that buy water every year. According to just-released DWCD budget figures, an additional $1.1 million will go towards the debt in 2002. Of that, $639,000 is collected from the district’s 4.6-mill levy. Irrigation users pitch in another $473,000 and the city of Cortez will pay $250,000 from revenues collected on water bills. First filled in 1987, the 381,000-acre-foot capacity McPhee Reservoir irrigates some 70,000 acres of crops, mostly alfalfa, in Dolores and Montezuma counties and on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. Farm economies could never afford such enormous irrigation systems, but they are made possible thanks to lucrative hydro-electric power plants run by the federal government. In fact, nearly $380 million of the Dolores Project’s price tag is subsidized by hydro-electric revenues generated by Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, explained DWCD general manager John Porter. "Glen Canyon is the cash register for ag projects, because agriculture itself could not pay for big irrigation systems like the Central Arizona Project or the Dolores Project," Porter said. Another $14 million is covered by municipal and industrial contracts for the water. The balance of $143 million is considered non-reimbursable, and includes federal work completed on the project for archaeology, moving of roads and utility lines, recreation facilities, fish and wildlife enhancement and flood control. The budget report highlights a billing blunder that is being rectified. The McPhee project runs a small hydro-electric power plant to supply its own needs that also sends small amounts of electricity out onto the national grid free of charge. But it was discovered this year that the Western Area Power Administration had been charging DWCD for the limited power it produced at the McPhee plants. The overcharge amounted to $843,000, and will be credited back to DWCD in two lump payments that will be added to the replacement reserve fund. At the hydro-electric plant, two turbines power a 1,300 kilowatt generator that kicks out 7,170,000 kilowatt hours per year. |
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