As promised, U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.) has introduced legislation that would allow the long-delayed and controversial Animas-La Plata water-storage project to be built.

If passed by Congress and signed by the president, H.R. 3112 would create a large reservoir in the foothills just south of Durango, thereby fulfilling water rights legally owed to both Colorado Ute Indian tribes under the Colorado Ute Water Rights Settlement Act of 1988.

"Primarily we want to satisfy long-ignored water claims of the tribes in southwest Colorado," McInnis spokesman Josh Penry said yesterday. "The bottom line is that they have a legitimate legal claim to these water rights and the federal government has a responsibility to honor them."

The latest scaled-back version proposed by McInnis is the culmination of several decades of heated debate and legal wrangling between environmental groups opposing the plan and the Western water-development establishment, which supports the project, along with both Colorado Ute tribes.

"Our tribe’s survival depends on water from the mountains, and this bill authorizing construction of A-LP will give us the method to finally get that water to parts of the reservation where it is needed," said Ernest House, Ute Mountain Ute tribal chairman.

The tribe’s backing was essential for McInnis to introduce the legislation, according to Penry, because the congressman believes the latest project design has been scaled back too far and is therefore unfair to Ute tribes. The original project allowed for a larger reservoir with more water, and funded some delivery systems, all for $754 million.

"Frankly we were not excited about the plan that we are currently carrying because it gives up too much," Penry said. "But ultimately we decided that if the tribes can live with it, then so can we."

U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt favors a $287 million version, dubbed "A-LP Lite," which mirrors McInnis’ bill, Penry said. And in a draft study released last week, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recommended its favored version of A-LP, which closely resembles Babbitt’s choice, except that it costs $4 million more, reserves extra water and infrastructure for recreational use.

Under the Bureau’s preferred plan, the off-stream water-storage and diversion project would cost taxpayers $291 million, export 57,100 acre-feet of water every year from the Animas River and push it, via an electric-powered pumping station, 300 feet uphill into nearby Ridges Basin. Once there, the valuable resource promised to the tribes would be finally available for potential industrial and municipal uses — 3,299 acre-feet per year for the Ute Mountain Utes, and 14,580 acre-feet per year for the Southern Ute tribe.

The remaining amount could be used by towns in the Four Corners, including Durango, Farmington, Red Mesa or Cortez, Aztec, Kirtland, and the Navajo Nation. There are no irrigation uses allowed under this plan, only municipal or industrial.

McInnis’ bill sets those water-allocation limits per year at 16,525 acre-feet for each Colorado Ute tribe, and 2,340 acre-feet for the Navajo Nation. The remaining 19,000 acre-feet would be divided up between the San Juan Water Commission, Animas La-Plata Conservancy District, the State of Colorado, and the La Plata Conservancy District of New Mexico.

His bill asks Congress to appropriate $80 million for initial construction costs, with the remaining costs presumably coming at a later date.

The hitch, opponents have long argued, is that no funding is allocated for the Ute tribes to construct the elaborate system of canals and the pumping stations needed to actually deliver the water to various industrial and municipal projects. The Ute Mountain Utes would have to pay the costs (expected to be millions of dollars) to transport the water over Red Mesa and into the La Plata River drainage, where it could be accessed and utilized for various "end uses."

Tentative plans for the water were unveiled by the Ute Mountain Ute tribe in a four-inch-thick draft environmental impact study released by the Bureau of Reclamation last week. According to the report, some options are a Mancos Canyon golf course and resort, a La Plata Canyon dude ranch and resort, a Tribal Park visitor center, a housing development, and a gas-fired power plant within Ute Mountain Ute boundaries.

House emphasized the importance that A-LP plays for the future economic success of the tribe’s growing population.

"Our long-range economic-development plans rely on this water source, especially for that (eastern) portion of the reservation," House said yesterday. "These plans are for the betterment of our tribal members. This project is something we have all been looking forward to for a long time in order to move ahead.

"It all depends on water now. If it wasn’t for the water from the Dolores Project, then this tribe would not be moving in the direction that it is right now."

The Bureau’s report finds that A-LP is the best solution for satisfying Ute water claims, priority rights on the Animas and La Plata rivers that date back to 1886. Several non-structural alternatives have been suggested and studied that essentially would either pay off the tribes for water owed, or provide the tribes with a trust to buy water and land elsewhere as compensation. Both tribal councils have adamantly opposed non-structural alternatives.

Right now it is unclear whether McInnis’ bill has the muscle to pass both houses of Congress, Penry said. If it does pass into law, it could be vetoed by the President, since last year the Clinton Administration came out strongly against the project. But supporters believe that Babbitt’s recent support for A-LP Lite is a signal that Clinton will sign the bill once it passes through Congress.

If it doesn’t pass, or is vetoed, both tribal governments have said they will initiate a lawsuit to obtain water rights owed to them under federal law.

"We may have to open that new book, if it comes down to that," House said. "But right now we support McInnis’ bill and hope that it passes Congress so this project can finally get moving."