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<br />42 <br /> <br />the many expressions of concern for those rights in the record argue against <br /> <br /> <br />congressional intent to limit Navajo rights through quantification. <br /> <br />Another point undermines the notion that the NTIP legislation quantified Navajo <br /> <br /> <br />Winters rights for all time. That is the ambiguity over just how much water the tribe <br /> <br /> <br />was granted by the legislation. The statute speaks clearly of a 508,000 acre-foot <br /> <br /> <br />annual diversion. lOB The later hearing record mentions annual consumptive use of <br /> <br /> <br />252,000 acre-feet.'09 Another figure emerged when the Bureau of Reclamation, in the <br /> <br />, <br />, <br /> <br />course of building the project, decided for economic reasons to shift from the <br /> <br />. <br />:, <br />" <br />~ <br />~ <br />~ <br /> <br />r~ I <br />" <br /> <br />originally planned gravity-flow irrigation to sprinkler irrigation. This decision reduced <br /> <br />,. <br />(~ <br /> <br />the diversion required to achieve the same amount of consumptive use to 330,000 <br />acre-feet a year.110 Thus there has been confusion over whether the Navajo have <br /> <br />:~ <br />, <br /> <br />rights to the 508,000 acre-foot diversion mentioned in the legislation, the 252,000 acre. <br /> <br /> <br />feet of consumptive use required to complete the project, or the new 330,000 acre- <br /> <br /> <br />foot diversion required under sprinkler irrigation to achieve consumptive use of <br /> <br />"' <br />l' <br /> <br />i~. <br />l> <br />i <br />fr~_ <br />~ <br />~[ <br />. <br /> <br />~ <br />:<;J <br />~~.; <br /> <br />.':::, <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />~. ; <br />."iJ. <br />'1' <br />i.; <br /> <br />lOBNIIP Act.. ~ note 1, Sec. 2. For discussion of the meaning of the legislation's <br />choice of diversion rather than depletion, ~ DuMars and Ingram, ~ note 3 at 27- <br />28 and 34-35. <br /> <br />109~ Senate Hearin~ 1959, ~ note 17 at 19 and Senate Hearini 1961. ~ <br />note 17 at 49. ~ discussion of early mention, in BIA testimony, of larger consumptive- <br />use figure in note 17 ~. <br /> <br />110~ Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Interior, Navajo Illdian Irri&ation <br />Proiect. New Mexico. All-Sprinkler Irnl/ation System 2 (1974). <br />