The Role of Archaeology in the Development of One of the Last Reclamation Reservoirs
T
o say that the Animas-La Plata (A-LP) Project faced a multitude of political and regulatory challenges and setbacks throughout its planning and construction is an understatement. In the nearly 60 years from the A-LP’s planning authorization in 1956 to the completion of construction in 2013, Congress passed both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, each adding time and complexity to the already-large project. Changing support for federal investment in water projects in general and in irrigation in particular had a major effect on the A-LP.
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in 2000, Congress authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to implement and complete the revised project, and Reclamation in turn officially began construction in 2001. Rick Gold, former Reclamation Durango office manager and subsequently the Upper Colorado regional director, described the feeling within Reclamation at the time the project plan was modified. “During that time, we at Reclamation pursued myriad issues and worked on moving the project forward so that the water supply for Colorado, New Mexico, and the tribes could be developed.” The Requirements of History One of the unique and significant challenges the project faced was the mitigation effort needed to gain compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966 and to reckon with the scope and weight of southwestern Colorado’s history and cultural resources. The NHPA was intended to ensure the preservation of historic sites by requiring completion of an impact analysis on the proposed construction grounds. The proposed A-LP Project site was situated in a “rich archaeological region, particularly for prehistoric ancestral Puebloan, or Anasazi sites,” according to Alex Wesson, senior project manager and archaeologist for SWCA Environmental Consultants and an archeologist on the A-LP Project. The discovery and preservation process for the A-LP Project would be a major component of its permitting process. Anticipated project impacts to over 70 archaeological sites were mitigated through a multiyear archaeological data recovery program. Alex Wesson described the complexity of the archaeological mitigation program for the project, which “involved carefully digging in layers, IRRIGATION LEADER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRIAN COOK.
Background Congress authorized the construction of the A-LP in the Colorado River Basin Project Act of September 30, 1968. The original vision of the project was large in scope—2 dams, 7 pumping plants, and 200 miles of canals and pipelines—to serve both agricultural and municipal interests in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. Over the following decade, economic, political, and environmental changes challenged the development of the project. But by the mid-1980s, the project gained new life in the Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement. Proponents of the settlement viewed the construction of the A-LP as a path toward meeting the water supply needs of the Southern Ute Indian and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribes. Under the leadership of thenCongressman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the A-LP was incorporated into the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act of 1987. Despite the recharacterization of the project and the necessary authorization, the project struggled for another decade. Environmental groups argued that the needs of the Ute tribes could be met via other means, and Congress renewed its debate over the benefits and costs of the overall project. Those debates forged a leaner A-LP: the total elimination of irrigation, a far-less-developed water supply, a smaller offstream reservoir, a pumping plant, and an inlet conduit. Finally, with the passage of the Colorado Ute Settlement Act Amendments
