Any proposal that cuts into the Indian allotment--which means just about any A-LP proposal other than the original--technically breaks the agreement with the Indians, which means the water-rights settlement would have to be renegotiated. But Remington thinks SUGO has come up with an acceptable alternative: the Ute Legacy Land and Water Fund.
Under this proposal, the federal government would put an estimated $100 million in a trust. Over the next thirty years, on a willing-seller basis, money from the trust would be used by the Southern Utes to buy back water rights and land on their reservation from the current, non-Indian owners. The Ute Mountain Utes could use money from the trust to develop revenue-generating projects such as their own version of Mesa Verde park. Money from those projects could in turn pay to bring the already allocated Dolores project water to the Ute Mountain Ute reservation.
This alternative would allow the Southern Utes who want "wet" water to farm and to do so on land regained by the tribe. And SUGO would also press for a change in the law that would allow the tribe to sell its water down-river. Not only would that bring in close to $30 million a year, Remington says, "we also estimate that we could get another $3 million, maybe higher, from the power generated."
Under this alternative proposal, though, most of the water would remain in the river--where Utes like it best, Remington adds. "Western civilization has never placed much value on water in a river. We do.
"This proposal would give us the right to decide what to do with our living water, instead of it sitting in a reservoir, dead, where it does nothing for us," he says.
Remington thinks the rest of the project's opponents will sign off on this plan. They'll have to, Schoettler says, if SUGO wants its alternative to be the opposition plan considered at her next meeting. Along with the proposal, SUGO will suggest that both tribes begin a six-month educational push, encouraging public debate on the pros and cons of assorted alternatives. After that, the tribes would vote to support the A-LP project as currently proposed, another alternative or the Ute Legacy Land and Water Fund.
"We have never voted on or approved the Animas-La Plata project as a people," Remington says. "If, after the education process and the vote, the people want the water project, we'll stop fighting it and give it our blessing."
Still, Remington is convinced the Utes will go for SUGO's proposal. In fact, he suggests, the only people who won't like it are the development and white agricultural interests. "And if this is really about Indian water rights," he asks, "what have they got to complain about?
