The foundation has been laid to provide drinking water to the dry western side of La Plata County, but the building blocks needed to complete the system are many, varied and expensive. A couple of dozen skeptical Dryside residents heard the assessment Tuesday evening from La Plata West Water Authority board members Roy Horvath, Tom Brossia, Mae Morley and Kirk Peine. The board is starting to unveil the project publicly, which has been the subject of three reports since 2003. The La Plata West Water Authority was created in 2007 to draw water from Lake Nighthorse, located a mile southwest of Bodo Industrial Park in Durango, for use in western La Plata County. The lake, which is being filled with water pumped from the Animas River, is part of a water-rights settlement with Native American tribes. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and residents of San Juan County just over the line in New Mexico are in line to use La Plata West water. At build-out in 20 to 40 years, the system would have 35 million gallons of water a day available for an estimated 8,100 taps. Residents now use well water for bathing or washing dishes and clothes, while trucking in drinking water. So far, however, only a $5.7 million intake structure has been built on Lake Nighthorse. Missing are a water-treatment plant, a storage tank, a trunk line and lateral distribution lines. Total capital costs exceed $96 million. An estimated $2 million must be found to pay the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority for the 700 acre-feet of water the authority would use.

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