Dear HCN,
I want to offer what I
hope people will perceive to be a constructive alternative to the
controversial Animas-La Plata dam project. The solution is simple:
Purchase ranches in southwest Colorado and give them to the two Ute
tribes and their members (HCN, 11/11/96).
Most
ranches come with significant, high-priority water rights. The goal
should be to acquire ranches with water rights equal in volume to
the rights conferred to the tribes under existing law. Most of the
rights would be somewhat junior to the Utes’ 1854 rights, but would
be senior to almost all other users of the rivers. Legal action
could change those rights to 1854.
Because the
rights would be purchased in the open market system, the prior
appropriation system would remain intact. This could reduce some of
the resentment which existing water users feel about federal
reserved water rights. Colorado is noted for its relatively free,
open market for water rights, and this program would take advantage
of that situation.
The current estimated cost of
the project is around $800 million. For $100 million-$200 million,
a large amount of ranchland could be purchased, and many of these
lands would be more green than the deserts now owned by the Ute
tribes – lands more like the Ute territory prior to the invasion of
white people. This also could put the Utes directly into the
agriculture business, which was the original goal of the
reservations.
An incidental benefit from this
move would be to preserve ranching and open spaces in La Plata and
Montezuma counties. Most ranches there are now threatened by the
housing subdivision alternative. With a couple hundred million
dollars at hand, a lot of debt-free, prosperous ranching could be
created that also pays property taxes.
Of course,
the Utes themselves might later go into the housing subdivision
business. That would be their privilege, just as it is now the
ranchers’. Some folks may see a significant drawback to this idea:
the prospect of a large amount of land changing from white
ownership to Native American. But so
what?
Gary
Sprung
Crested Butte,
Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Let ranches equal water.
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