A-LP passes Senate, has slight chance in House

A-LP passes Senate, has slight chance in House

Oct. 28, 2000

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

After a 32-year wait, Congress has moved considerably closer to settling the water-rights claims of three area Indian tribes.

On Wednesday, a bill establishing a smaller Animas-La Plata water project handily passed the U.S. Senate, but faces a slim chance of getting House approval before Congress adjourns next week.

This late in the session, the measure’s only chance rests on whether Rep. Scott McInnis can put enough political pressure on House leaders to include A-LP as a rider on the sole appropriations bill left for consideration.

"It’s a mad scramble back here," said Josh Penry, spokesman for McInnis. "Certainly there’s a lot of people with a lot of projects they want to get done so the task ahead is daunting.

"We’ve been working hard on this for a long time in anticipation of this moment, so we’re ready for what’s ahead of us."

On Thursday McInnis and his Democratic colleague, Rep. Patrick Kennedy from Rhode Island, sent a letter to their fellow lawmakers asking for their support. The letter rebutted a previous letter opposing A-LP circulated by its opponents in the House.

"Every argument raised by the opponents comes back to the original project — but that project no longer is on the table. This is now a smaller project, an Indian water-rights settlement, with no irrigation," McInnis and Kennedy explained.

Congress initially authorized the project for $754 million in 1968 to honor an 1868 treaty with the Ute and Navajo tribes, but since then the larger measure has been tied up in litigation and complicated environmental assessments.

"The stage is now set for what I hope will be the last battle of this decades-long water war," said McInnis in a press release.

"With only a few days left in this legislative session, we have a historic opportunity to at long last move forward with this project and settle the Ute Tribes’ water rights once and for all."

If passed, the bill would authorize $278 million for the Bureau of Reclamation to divert 57,100 acre-feet from the Animas River to a reservoir near Durango. The established reservoir’s water would be pumped from Ridges Basin southwest of Durango and then held in reserve for municipal and industrial use.

Its critics have charged that the measure is pure pork and environmentally not feasible. But after slimming the proposal down and garnering support from the Interior Department, the Senate voted 85-5 in favor of the legislation sponsored by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

The Senate also defeated Sen. Russ Feingold’s (D-Wis.) efforts to amend the bill to make non-Indians pay more for their water rights and officially deauthorize the older, larger project.

The Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Indian tribes would each get 16,525 acre-feet per year of the diverted water, while the Navajo Nation is pegged to get 2,340 acre-feet. In addition, The San Juan Water Commission in New Mexico has reserved 10,400 acre-feet and the state of Colorado receives 5,230. Two water-conservancy districts, one in Colorado and one in New Mexico, also benefit from the project.

"This bill is the absolute last opportunity for this nation to finally keep its promise to the Southern and Ute Mountain Ute Indian tribes and avoid a long, expensive legal battle," Campbell warned.

In the past, the Utes have proposed using their share of the water for coal-mining, golf courses, and electric power plants.

"There are still honorable men in Congress who respect our treaties, and I’m optimistic that it will get through the House," said Ute Mountain Ute Chairman Ernest House.