From the Cortez Journal (Joe Hanel):
The Colorado Water Conservation Board will hold a special meeting by telephone Monday morning to discuss the option. The state holds the right of first refusal to buy 10,460 acre-feet of water. If the state doesn’t buy it, the water would go to the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Indian tribes, which already own 33,050 acre-feet each behind the dam south of Durango…
The Water Conservation Board is scheduled to decide Monday whether to support an amendment to the annual water projects bill. This year, the bill has only paltry sums to spend because the Legislature raided most of the state’s water bank accounts to help balance the budget. But the bleak budget situation changed last week, when a new economic forecast showed a slight improvement. Crucially, the forecast showed an uptick in gas and oil tax revenue, which by law is sent to the water accounts. The proposed plan would tell the state to contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for up to 10,460 acre-feet of water per year, paid for in three installments of $12 million starting in summer 2011. The cost works out to around $3,500 per acre-foot, or about a penny per gallon. That’s a bargain, Whitehead said. When he served on the CWCB, the board funded projects that cost up to $30,000 per acre-foot.
Water in the Animas-La Plata project is set aside for municipal use, not agriculture. But Whitehead said the state has many options for using the water. It could sell it to nearby entities that need water, like the Town of Bayfield or the La Plata West Water Authority. It also could use the water to comply with the Colorado River Compact, which requires California, Arizona and Nevada to get a share of the water in the Colorado River Basin.