The Bureau of Reclamation plans to hold a public meeting June 18 to update residents on progress toward opening Lake Nighthorse for recreational use.
A news release from Ed Warner, Western Colorado area manager, said the agency believed it was near an agreement with partners and stakeholders of the Animas-La Plata Project to integrate recreation. Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet wrote to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last week asking it to issue a plan for opening the reservoir for recreation quickly. The letter said recreation on Lake Nighthorse could contribute up to $12 million each year to the local economy.
“We believe that recreation will become a reality at Lake Nighthorse and we are committed to continuing to work with all stakeholders to achieve results that are responsive to stakeholder concerns and public needs,” the release said. “Our goal is to achieve this kind of consensus as early as 2015.”
Lake Nighthorse is a reservoir with 1,500 surface acres created in Ridges Basin southwest of downtown Durango by the bureau to provide water for Native American tribes, cities and water districts in Colorado and New Mexico. The reservoir was filled in June 2011, but the parties involved, after years of talks, have yet to agree on major issues.
Southwestern Water Conservation District owns the water rights. The water is allocated, but not owned, through project contracts to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Navajo Nation, the Animas-La Plata Conservancy District, the state of Colorado, the San Juan Water Commission and La Plata Conservancy District. The entities formed the Animas-La Plata Operation, Maintenance and Replacement Association in 2009, which fronted money in anticipation of water purchases by the city of Durango and the Animas-La Plata Water Conservancy.
The city of Durango has offered to operate the park but wants to annex the area to provide police protection. The Utes have said annexation is unacceptable. There has been conflict about who should run the park and be involved in making decisions. The Utes also have said they must be able to exercise Brunot Treaty rights to hunt on ancestral land.
The reservoir was built as part of the Animas-La Plata Project, which has a long and controversial history. It was first authorized by Congress in 1968 as a water project for irrigation, municipal and industrial water uses, but Congress approved a scaled-down Animas-La Plata Project in 2000 as a way to fulfill water-right obligations to tribes in Colorado and New Mexico.
The meeting will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. June 18 at the Durango Community Recreation Center.
