Animas - La Plata Project
Contact: Doug Hendrix, (801) 524-3837
The Animas-La Plata Project, located in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico, has been the subject of substantial public interest and environmental review since it was authorized in 1968. After completion of a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and a biological opinion finding that a scaled-down version of the project would not jeopardize the endangered Colorado pikeminnow, the project was approved by the Colorado Ute Settlement Act Amendments of 2000.
The Amendments authorize construction of a reservoir, pumping plant and inlet conduit with an average annual depletion of 57,100 acre-feet. Appropriations under the act will be made over five years, allowing construction within seven years. The Act also established a $40 million resource fund for the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian Tribes for municipal or rural water development, along with resource acquisition and enhancement.
Project Plan
An off-stream water storage facility, the Ridges Basin Reservoir, and a pumping plant, will be built near Durango, Colorado. The reservoir will be able to store about 120,00 acre-feet of water from the Animas River. In addition, a buried pipeline will carry water from the Farmington to Shiprock, New Mexico, area to benefit the Navajo Nation.
Water from Ridges Basin will be released back to the Animas River as needed for municipal and industrial users within Colorado and New Mexico. The reservoir will also include an inactive pool of about 30,000 acre-feet for recreational, fishery, and water quality purposes.
Water will be divided between the southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico as follows:
| Colorado | Supply (acre-feet) | Depletion (acre-feet) |
| 33,050 | 16,525 |
| 33,050 | 16,525 |
| 5,200 | 2,600 |
| 10,460 | 5,230 |
| Total | 81,760 | 40,880 |
| New Mexico | Supply (acre-feet) | Depletion (acre-feet) |
| 4,680 | 2,340 |
| 20,800 | 10,400 |
| 1,560 | 780 |
| Total* | 27,040 | 13,520 |
*Difference between total depletions shown and average annual 57,100 acre-foot depletions allowed is allowance for evaporation that will occur at Ridges Basin Reservoir.
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