The dam stands 273 feet high and consists of 5.22 million cubic yards of clay, rock and sand. It is the largest earthen structure of its kind currently under construction in the United States, said Rick Ehat, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation engineer overseeing construction of the project.

"It's really a testament to a huge group of people who have put together this team to build the project, and it is just a tremendous success," he said.

Work continues on other aspects of the $500 million project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2012. The reservoir is scheduled to start filling in 2009.

At the topping-out ceremony, a large dump truck dumped the last load of dirt atop the dam. Among those in attendance was former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Ignacio, who helped to secure federal funding for the project. The 120,000-acre-foot reservoir will be named Lake Nighthorse.

"A lot of years of work for today," Campbell said. "A lot of roadblocks from the environmental community and a lot of redoing it and downsizing it and changing it and everything else. It finally happened."

Fred Kroeger, a longtime advocate for the project, said he attended his first meeting to discuss future water needs in 1947, and in numerous subsequent meetings, the idea for the A-LP was born.

"I think it's wonderful," Kroeger said. "It is tremendous for our community."

A groundbreaking was held in 1991, but because of delays due to environmental impacts, work did not start until 2002.

In addition to the dam, other major components of the project include a 2½-mile, 76-inch pipeline between the pumping station next to the Animas River and the reservoir, and the Navajo Nation municipal pipeline from Farmington to Shiprock, a distance of about 22 miles.

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