30

• Board Meeting Date: 1/27/2004
• Description: WSP Section - Navajo Nation Federal Reserved Water Right Settlement with the State of New Mexico
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

TO:

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

Russell George
Executive Director

FROM:

Randy Seaholm, Chief, Water Supply Protection

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

DATE:

January 19,2004

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

SUBJECT:

Agenda Item 30, January 27-28 Board Meeting
Water Supply Protection, Navajo Nation Federal Reserved Water Right
Settlement with the State of New Mexico

Back2round

Attached hereto is the draft Executive Summary (ES) of the "San Juan River Basin in New Mexico,
Navajo Water Right Settlement." Rather than attempt to summarize the settlement with its extensive
qualifications, I have elected to let the summary speak for itself.

Discussion

New Mexico did not provide Colorado with any notification that the settlement documents were
available for review and comment. Rather we learned a couple weeks after the fact that they were
posted on the New Mexico State Engineers website. Colorado ask:ed for an extension of time to
comment given the late notice and the fact that comments were requested over the holidays. New
Mexico stated that they were not obligated to request comments, but indicated that they would
accept comments after the January 15th deadline, but could not provide any assurance that the
comments would be fully considered.

Staff in reviewing the documents has the following concerns:

1. Does the settlement actually k:eep New Mexico within its compact apportionment under the
current "Hydrologic Determination"? The settlement agreements claim to accomplish this, but
New Mexico is advancing a depletion schedule that assumes that 5% of the irrigated land is
fallow at any given point in time. If this does not occur, New Mexico would rely on certain
subordination clauses in the settlement to remain within their compact apportionment.
Accounting details on how this would be done have not yet been work:ed out and disclosed. This
concern is compounded by the statement on page 4 of the ES that indicates individual members
of the Navajo Nation that have been allotted land by the U.S. are not bound by the settlement

Colorado Water Conservation Board
Flood Protection. Water Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought Planning