The Inspector General’s office of
the Department of Interior says costs have soared so high on the
$635 million Animas-La Plata water project that it is “economically
infeasible.” That pronouncement was made in a draft report
addressed March 14 to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Dan
Beard on the controversial dam-and-irrigation project proposed for
southwestern Colorado (HCN, 3/22/93). The report recommends that
the Bureau drop as much as $230 million from the project, including
the irrigation portion, which auditors say would carry water too
expensive for many farmers to purchase. It also suggests that the
federal government ask two Indian tribes – the Southern Ute and Ute
Mountain Ute tribes – if they would be willing to accept cash or
other compensation in exchange for dumping the federal irrigation
improvements promised them.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Animas-La Plata a financial boondoggle.
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