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Durango-which means "well-watered place"-embodies all the perplexities of water management in the West. Any water that is allowed to run downstream is wasted water. Any water that can be held captive behind the thousands of dams built under the 1902 Reclamation Act is good water. Today the contradictions of this water policy are starting to show through as clearly as the cracked earth on the bottom of the Lemon Reservoir. Some 14 miles northeast of Durango, the Lemon was built in 1963 to hold 40,000 acre-ft. of water for irrigation in the area. It is down to 9% of capacity, all irrigation has been suspended, and the reservoir serves as an amusement for locals who drive pickups outonto the dry bed and make doughnut shapes with their tires.
An old mining town that once thrived on smelting gold and silver ore, Durango today is following Aspen and Telluride in remodeling itself as a tourist destination and a home for wealthy retirees seeking an outdoor life. The small town is quaintly restored, but the economy is sagging. Fires and drought have put an end to much of the hiking and whitewater rafting, restaurants are laying off staff, and many tourists have canceled trips. While the rest of the country keeps a nervous eye on the Dow Jones industrial average, everyone in Durango follows cubic-feet-per-second flow rates on the two local rivers. Both are running at one-fifth their normal levels for this time of year. "It will take two to three years to get out of the hole we are in now," says Ken Beegles, head of the Durango office of the state division of water resources. "We are counting on Mother Nature to change."
But what if Mother Nature doesn't comply? Some 35 miles west of Durango, in the Mesa Verde National Park, site of a fire in July, are the famous cliff dwellings of the Anasazi-or ancestral Puebloans, as they are now known-whose civilization flourished there until the end of the 13th century, when the combination of a 30-year drought, a population explosion and overuse of natural resources forced them out.
Durango is oblivious to the lessons of history. It plans to build enough houses to expand its population 160%, to 40,000. This growth will require more water, and the city is banking on another dam, the controversial Animas-La Plata project, which has been on the drawing board since 1968. It is still unclear whether Congress will appropriate the entire $350 million needed for the dam. Water flows toward money. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s pushed small farmers off the land and consolidated larger land holdings. The drought of today will force farmers like Gillen to sell off more of their land for housing subdivisions. The grass on those future lawns will probably be kept greener than his dying fields. -With reporting by Rita Healy/Marvel
Montana THE CHIEF JUDGE OF THE STATE'S WATER COURT IS THE LAST WORD ON DISPUTES. THIS YEAR HIS JOB IS TOUGHER THAN EVER