CITIZENS?PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE
PRESS RELEASE
September 10, 2001
A-LP FOES SUE FEDS
FOIA Suit Names BIA & DOI
Colorado Ute Indian Water Claims At Issue
FLORA VISTA, NM — THE FOUR CORNERS (09/10/01)–Citizens’ Progressive Alliance
(CPA), a public interest watchdog group based in northwest New Mexico and
Colorado, is suing the Department of Interior in the 10th U.S. District Court
for failure to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). At stake is a
full and open public review of a sixteen-year-old technical study used by the
Federal Government to justify construction of the half-billion dollar Animas-La
Plata Project (A-LP).
Nearly two years ago CPA requested a copy of the Keller-Bliesner "Preliminary
Assessment" (Report) — purportedly the Government’s determination of
practicably irrigable acreage on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. But the
BIA and DOI have refused to release this quantification study of Ute water
rights, claiming the Report is exempt from public disclosure.
Not so, CPA argues. Interior waived any right to withhold the Report by
providing it to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. "Interior has felt free to
selectively share this information with others; now we think the Court will
agree that we deserve to see the facts," said Steve Cone of CPA.
The controversial A-LP involves construction of a large dam, pump works and
pipeline to be funded primarily by Federal taxpayers. The Government has
pitched A-LP as the only reasonable means of settling and satisfying Colorado
Ute tribal water claims on the Animas River. But the withholding of empirical
data in the Report has prevented the Public from weighing alternatives and
determining the real purpose and need for A-LP. "This constitutes an
unconscionable breach of the Public Trust. Just what is the Government trying
to hide — and why?" asked CPA Chair Phil Doe.
The Keller-Bliesner Report was quoted extensively in a separate 1990 document
(the "Sonosky Report") prepared by attorneys for the Southern Ute Tribe to
evaluate the Tribes’ Water Rights Settlement. In the Sonosky Report the Tribe
is advised of the vulnerability of its water claims to legal challenges. That
report concludes that if the Southern Ute Tribe’s Animas and LaPlata water
rights were to be litigated, the court would likely award them entitlement to
only 4,680 acre-feet of water– far short of the 33,000 acre-feet of water the
Tribe now demands. (The Ute Mountain Utes have no valid water claims on either
the Animas or LaPlata rivers. Their water entitlements were secured in 1991
with construction of the $800 million Dolores Project. ) "Evidence in the
Keller-Bliesner Report will confirm that the entire A-LP Project is fraud. The
Government knows full well that the Utes cannot prove entitlement under the
Winters doctrine to most of the water set aside for them in this project," said
CPA member Jeanne Englert.
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Press Contacts:
Jeanne Englert (303) 665-2582 trex@ix.netcom.com
Steve Cone (505) 327-0743 scone@infoway.lib.nm.us
Phil Doe (303) 904-1426 ptdoe@juno.com
FAXED COPY OF PRESS RELEASE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST —
For additional background and details about this case view:
Citizens’ Progressive Alliance website, A-LP Central,
http://www.angelfire.com/al/alpcentral and
http://www.macinstruct.com/alpcentral/foiasum.html
Further documentation available upon request includes:
"Evaluation of the Colorado Ute Water Settlement for the Southern Ute
Tribe", Sonosky, Chambers & Sachse; with Samuel L. Winder; June 12, 1990.
http://www.macinstruct.com/alpcentral/sonosky.html
High Country News, "Animas-La Plata: still flawed," Lisa Jones, High Country
News — December 17, 1990 (Vol. 22, No. 24),
http://www.hcn.org/readers/animas/dir/lead_901217.html
United States 10th District Court, New Mexico; Complaint (see attachment)
Citizens? Progressive Alliance v. U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and Department
of Interior.