DURANGO, Colo.—The last load of dirt has been dumped atop a 273-foot-tall dam for the Animas-La Plata water project in southwest Colorado.
Crews celebrated with a topping-out ceremony Friday.
The dam will hold a reservoir capable of storing 120,000 acre-feet of water — about 39 billion gallons. It’s scheduled to start filling in 2009.
It will supply water to the Ute Mountain Ute, Southern Ute and Navajo tribes, and Durango, Colorado and Farmington, New Mexico.
The reservoir will store water pumped from the Animas River. Water will be returned to the river as needed.
The project will include a pipeline to carry water from Farmington about 22 miles to Shiprock, on the Navajo Nation.
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Information from: The Durango Herald,
