Colorado Water
All is not well in Animas-La Plata land. A Senate subcommittee, headed up by Pete Domenici from New Mexico plans to explore the cost overruns on the project, according to the Rocky Mountain News [December 9, 2003, "Senate panel to scrutinize Animas-La Plata's rising cost"]. From the article, "News of the soaring costs didn't surprise critics, who now want the FBI and the Inspector General's office to look at the causes. 'These are not cost overruns. They are not bad cost estimates. It was fraud,' said Michael Black of the Taxpayers for the Animas River. Several opponents believe the Bureau of Reclamation was aware that the project was far more expensive than the cost given to Congress and that the real price was hidden until construction was well under way. Construction started in 1999, the same year the bureau's regional office in Lakewood received a memo warning of the problem. The memo was ignored, bureau Commissioner John Keys acknowledged last week."
Here's a story from the Cortez Journal about the removal of Pete Schumacher from his job as chairman of a panel that has oversight for the project. From the article, "Keys would not say whether Schumacher would have any role in the project, calling that a personnel issue. Schumacher did not return telephone messages left at his office and home."
Here's a bit of background about a meeting in Aurora last week between Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John Keys and sponsors of the project, from the Cortez Journal. From the article, "The Denver-based Citizens Progressive Alliance, a long-time opponent to the project, disagreed that the meeting should have been closed to the public, but also was allowed in." I found a letter from the Alliance to the Department of Interior.
7:35:54 AM 
|
|
