A-LP project 97% complete

Ritter, Salazar, Interior secretary join in ceremony

by Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer

Article Last Updated; Friday, October 17, 2008

When a project 40 years in the making reaches the 97-percent-done milestone, a near-completion ceremony such as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation held Thursday for the Animas-La Plata Project probably is not unreasonable.

Attending the ceremony were federal, state and local officials, members of three American Indian tribes, and Colorado and New Mexico residents who have followed the twists and turns of the A-LP - a settlement of water-right claims by the tribes - since it was authorized by Congress in 1968.

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A-LP project 97% complete

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Photo by YODIT GIDEY/Herald photos

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne attends the progress update of the Animas-La Plata Project at Ridges Basin Dam on Thursday. The first earth for the A-LP was turned in 1993. But a number of miscalculations pushed the original cost of the project from $338 million to $500 million, plus inflation.

Photo by YODIT GIDEY/Herald photos

Photo by YODWater is pumped through to Ridges Basin Dam during a ceremony Thursday.IT GIDEY/Herald photos

During the opening for a progress tour Thursday of Ridges Basin Dam, 12 Gauge, a group of drummers from Ignacio, performs.

Photo by YODIT GIDEY/Herald photos

Ray Kogovsek, who served Colorado in the U.S. House of Representatives and as a state representative, is acknowledged in the crowd during the progress update of Ridges Basin Dam on Thursday.

Photo by YODIT GIDEY/Herald photos

Water is pumped through to Ridges Basin Dam during a ceremony Thursday.

Water was an important resource 100 years ago and will be so into the future.The project will serve as a template for other places around the West.

- U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.

Among the luminaries at an event the Reclamation Bureau dubbed "a celebration of partners in progress" were Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne; Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter; David Bernhardt, the solicitor of the Interior Department; Robert Johnson, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation; and U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. Salazar's brother, U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, missed it because of a family emergency.

Also present at the Ridges Basin Dam outlet works were Clement Frost and Ernest House, chairmen of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, respectively, and Joe Shirley, president of the Navajo Nation.

Kempthorne said the A-LP, the first Bureau of Reclamation dam project in more than a decade, is "on schedule, under budget and environmentally sound." The project will provide jobs for tribal members, benefit wildlife and create a recreational area for fishing and boating.

The first earth for the A-LP was turned in 1993. But a number of miscalculations pushed the original cost of the project from $338 million to $500 million, plus inflation.

The revised budget is a 48 percent cost overrun from the original price tag for a project that will send water uphill from the Animas River to Ridges Basin Reservoir.

The A-LP Project includes a pumping plant on the Animas River south of Santa Rita Park, a 2.1-mile, 76-inch pipeline between the pumping plant and the dam and reservoir at Ridges Basin, a 1,400-foot outlet tunnel that allows water to be released in case of emergency, and the Navajo Nation pipeline from Farmington to Shiprock about 22 miles to the west. The Navajo Nation water will be taken from the San Juan River in New Mexico.

Speakers Thursday stressed the cooperation of project partners.

Ritter said the project is testimony to committed people who "pushed long, hard and together" to get the job done.

"They searched for common ground," Ritter said. "The project will benefit historic water claims as well as the economies of tribal and non-tribal communities."

The dam is 276 feet high and stretches 1,760 feet across a canyon southwest of Durango. An estimated 5.25 million cubic yards of material went into the earth-filled structure, which will hold 120,000 acre feet of water. Filling is scheduled to begin next year.

"Who would have imagined 60 years ago all the tugging and pulling that would be necessary to resolve water needs?" Kempthorne said.

Ken Salazar praised the cooperation among tribal and nontribal water interests and government agencies to avoid litigation.

"Water was an important resource 100 years ago and will be so into the future," he said. "The project will serve as a template for other places around the West."

In a statement, John Salazar said the project was made possible by the strength of the partners who pushed ahead in the face of opposition. "The completion will serve as a shining example to our entire nation of what can be done through perseverance and partnership."

A contingent of military veterans from the two Ute tribes and the Navajo Nation presented the colors to open the ceremony. A plaque commemorating the event was unveiled at the end.

Precipitation that had accumulated behind the dam was released from the outlet works to conclude the ceremony.

The two Ute tribes each own 40 percent of the 120,000 acre feet of water to be stored in the reservoir, which has been named Lake Nighthorse after retired U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who lives in Ignacio and is a longtime supporter of the project.

Nontribal entities, including the city of Durango, will purchase some of the water.

daler@durangoherald.com