Colorado has proposed that federal legislation be enactd which would amend the 1956 Colorado River Storage Project Act to make CRSP power revenues payable directly to the Upper Division states. Such funds would then be used by those states to finance water project construction in order that the level of development agreed to by Congress, the seven Colorado River Basin states, and the purchasers of CRSP power can be achieved. We believe that the agreement of these parties is embodied in the 1956 Act, in the 1968 Colorado River Basin Project Act, and in the acts amendatory thereto which have authorized participating projects of the Colorado River Storage Project. Colorado advanced its proposal several months ago. Discussions are now ongoing with the other Colorado River Basin states, the power customers, and water users. This is a matter of the highest priority for Colorado and we intend to propose legislative language soon. Bureau of Reclamation (Water Projects in the President's Budget) For those items already included in the President's recommended budget, we urge that Congress maintain the funding levels requested. In particular, we support the requested funding for continuation of projects under construction. President's recommended budget is adequate for the timely execution and continuation of these reclamation projects. The We would caution, however, that any reductions in the President's budget request, particularly for construction activities, would be detrimental to the water users of the State of Colorado and, in the instance of the Closed Basin project, to the interests of the states of New Mexico and Texas as well. Also, failure to pass an appropriations bill for FY 85, which would leave the Bureau and the Corps to operate on a continuing resolution, could cause several problems. We commend this committee for its efforts to report out a bill last year and look forward to your favorable action again this year. Bureau of Reclamation (Colorado River Water Quality Improvement Program) The seven states of the Colorado River Basin have endorsed a coordinated, basinwide approach to the reduction of salinity in the Colorado River. The salinity control projects being studied, planned, and constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation are an integral component of the overall salinity control program. We support the President's budget request for this program. In addition, we would call your attention to the detailed testimony submitted on behalf of the seven basin states, acting through the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum, in which testimony Colorado concurs. Corps of Engineers The sums contained in the President's recommended budget are, with the exception noted below, adequate for the timely execution and continuation of federal flood control programs in Colorado. We would caution, however, that any reduction in these budget requests would unnecessarily jeopardize the lives and properties of many thousands of Coloradans. Especially important is the President's request for construction money for the South Platte River project below Chatfield Lake and for money for continuation of planning and engineering on the Fountain Creek project. Located in the heart of the Denver and Pueblo metropolitan areas, respectively, these are critical flood control projects. It is imperative that the construction which is being initiated in FY 84 on the South Platte River project be maintained on schedule thereafter and that planning for the Fountain Creek project proceed in a timely manner. We take exception to the failure of the President's recommended budget to include funding for the Westerly Creek flood control project in Denver and Aurora. The sum of $200,000 is needed in FY 85 for continuing planning and engineering. This project is vitally needed to enable local governments in the area to proceed on their own to solve problems upstream from the proposed federal project, which would be located on Lowry Air Force Base. The upstream problems cannot be addressed until the federal project goes forward. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you. Thank you for your time and consideration. LIST OF WITNESSES PROJECTS INVOLVED: Dolores Water Reclamation Project Animas-La Plata Water Reclamation Project PROJECT SPONSORS: Southwestern Water Conservation District of Colorado Southern Ute Indian Tribe La Plata Water Conservancy District Dolores Water Conservancy District REPRESENTATIVES IN PERSON OR BY STATEMENT: Frederick V. Kroeger, Board Member, Colorado Water Conservation Board Frank E. (Sam) Maynes, Attorney for Southwestern Water Conservation District John Murphy, President, Animas-La Plata Water Conservancy District, John Porter, Manager, Dolores Water Conservancy District R. T. Scott, Chairman, La Plata County Commissioners, La Plata County, CO. Brice Lee, Secretary/Treasurer, South Durango Water District, Member of Clara May Schmitt, Secretary/Treasurer, La Plata Water Conservancy District Ray deKay, Acting Superintendent, Southern Ute Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs Representative Ben Night horse Campbell, Colorado State Representative Donald W. Schwindt, Board Member, Dolores Water Conservancy District and Bill Price, Board Member, La Plata Water Conservancy District Richard M. Dossey, Board Member, Animas-La Plata Water Conservancy District Jim T. Dunlap, Chairman, Board of Commissioners, San Juan County, New Mexico Quincy Cornelius, Water Coordinator, San Juan County, New Mexico 31-245 O - 85 - 5 STATEMENT OF FRED V. KROEGER, PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, SOUTHWESTERN WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT OF COLORADO Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: I am Fred Kroeger, President of the Board of Directors of the Southwestern Water Conservation District, member of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, and lifelong resident of La Plata County, Colorado. Today ! join several other representatives of southwestern Colorado in making yet another appeal for funds for the Animas-La Plata Project. Although only a few of us have made the trip to Washington, D.C., this year to appear before this Committee, we represent the thousands of farmers, ranchers, businessmen, members of Indian tribes, and average citizens who have encouraged us to seek your help in obtaining $1,350,000 through the Energy and Water Development Supplemental Appropriations Bill for initial construction, and $5,000,000 in the Fiscal Year 1985 budget for secondyear construction. Before proceeding further with my request in behalf of the Animas-La Plata Project, I think I should pause long enough to thank the Committee for its helpful support of the Dolores Water Reclamation Project, which achieved a truly significant step forward within the past two weeks when water storage actually began at the McPhee Dam and Great Cut Dike. Other components of this project are under construction now, and we are optimistic that the sequential steps programmed in the development of the Dolores Project will proceed on schedule. It certainly makes an excellent model for our people to point to as we try to gain support for its sister project, the Animas-La Plata. The Animas-La Plata Project, as you know, was authorized by the Colorado River Basin Act of September 30, 1968 (P.L. 90-537), as a participating project under the Colorado River Storage Act of April 11, 1956 (P.L. 84-485). The intent of Congress was to establish a system of reservoirs for storing and allocating in an equitable manner the waters of the Colorado River and its tributaries between the states of the Upper Basin (Wyoming, Colorado, most of Utah, and parts of Arizona and New Mexico) and those of the Lower Basin (California, Nevada, most of Arizona, and parts of New Mexico and Utah), pursuant to the Colorado River Compact of 1922. While it appeared initially that funding for Upper Basin water reclamation projects and those of the Lower Basin would be provided contemporaneously, such has not been the case. The Central Arizona Project, for example, is nearing completion, having cost a total of $1,110,341,604 through the end of Fiscal Year 1983 and having a Fiscal Year 1984 allocation of $166,100,000, according to Bureau of Reclamation figures. The Animas-La Plata Project, on the other hand, was the subject of investigative studies amounting to $1,092,682 prior to 1968, and it has received only $3,981,534 - all for advance planning - since 1968, the year it was authorized. The Central Arizona Project affords an example of vigorous effort on the part of the United States Government to fulfill its commitment to ensure adequate municipal and industrial water, as well as water for irrigation, to the region encompassed by that project. In contrast, the Animas-La Plata Project has not been permitted to reach the stage of initial construction, owing to the economies imposed by three successive Presidential administrations. Despite the years of effort devoted to feasibility studies, environmental statements, a definite plan report, litigation to overcome constitutional challenges, as well as reviews and confirmed evaluations by consultants, the Animas-La Plata Project remains the orphan of the water reclamation family, the neglected stepchild of a seemingly unmindful central government. Our communities have endorsed the Project, and our Governor and legislature have approved cooperative state funding. We desperately seek the federal support required to move the Project beyond the planning stage into the realm of positive accomplishment. One special concern of Colorado proponents of the Animas-La Plata Project is the finite limit to the supply of water that can be expected from the Colorado River. Our state is entitled to 51.75% of the 7.5 million acre-feet of water allocated to the Upper Basin each year, according to the Colorado River Compact of 1922. This agreement apportioning the water of the Colorado River was reached after a series of years of plentiful precipitation, leading engineers to estimate that 16.4 million acre-feet was the total flow of the river. Since 1922, however, it has been found that the average annual flow is actually a mere 14 million acre-feet; hence, with current usage totaling approximately 12 million acre-feet, and with an increase to 13 million acre-feet predicted when the Central Arizona Project is completed, we can readily foresee that active users in the Upper Basin, the Lower Basin, and Mexico will move swiftly to consolidate what is already their entitlement, and will establish rights by timely usage for whatever additional waters are not being removed from the system by upstream claimants. Once lost through default, inaction, or litigation, the water to which Colorado has historically been entitled will be reduced, if not totally surrendered, for all time. From this larger picture, let us move to consideration of the more local situation. Perhaps the critical significance of water to our section of southwestern Colorado is difficult to appreciate by those who enjoy the well-saturated garden spots of the Nation's capital. To illustrate our situation, though, let me point out that Washington, D.C., has an annual precipitation of approximately 40 inches, whereas Durango receives only 19 inches, and more than half of that occurs between October and the end of April. Thus, with only about seven inches of rainfall, and often less, during our growing season, we have to look to water reclamation projects to provide the moisture to ensure the survival of our crops, to help meet our municipal water requirements, and to develop such industry as we can attract to our area. Unless we capture the melting runoff from our mountains and store it in reservoirs in the spring for prudently managed use during our dry summers, we cannot hope to thrive. As others will point out today, so will I too emphasize that the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe will be among the beneficiaries of the Animas-La Plata Project. Both tribal groups have agreed to rely on specifically negotiated amounts of Project water for their municipal and industrial needs and for their agricultural requirements, in lieu of pursuing through expensive and prolonged litigation their rights to water from the Animas, the La Plata, the Florida rivers near their reservations. In light of the vast coal reserves on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation (estimated to total between 116,000,000 and 400,000,000 tons) and the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation (estimated to be 39,000,000 tons), the reliance on water to develop this valuable energy resource can be readily understood. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1908, under the "Winters Doctrine," that when the U.S. Government reserved land for Indian tribes, it also, by implication, reserved sufficient quantities of water for present and future uses of those tribes that occupy the reservation. There seems little doubt that tribal water claims would prevail if the issue of rights to the water of our local rivers were to be tested in court. It is, therefore, in the interest of Indians and non-Indians that the Animas-La Plata Project receive the requested funding. In closing, let me ask the Committee to direct its attention once again to the matter of equity in its consideration of the needs of an admittedly moderately populated but an increasingly important part of our country, the Four Corners Region of the Southwest. As the major construction phases of other water reclamation projects are progressing beyond their critical stage, so that there is reasonable assurance of their being completed, now is certainly the time to begin applying funds and other resources to the long-neglected yet vitally essential Animas-La Plata Project. |