Enmeshed in controversy since its conception in 1968, the Bureau of Reclamation's Animas-La Plata water project would use hydropower from other federal dams to pump water from the Animas River in southwestern Colorado uphill 1,000 feet into an adjacent watershed to irrigate marginal agricultural land. The project would destroy wetlands, threaten fish and wildlife, deplete water flows in the Animas and San Juan Rivers, and degrade water quality in New Mexico, at a total cost to taxpayers of $714 million.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) proposed an amendment to S. 1959, the Fiscal Year 1997 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, to cut all $10 million budgeted for the Animas-La Plata project in 1997. On July 30, 1996, the Senate approved a motion by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) to table (kill) the Feingold amendment, 65 - 33. NO is the pro-environment vote. (See House vote l0.)