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• 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

. including from return flows. That amount of diversion includes about 320,000 acre-feet per year for the

Navajo Indian Irrigation Project so long as the sprinkler irrigation systems on the Project are operating.
An additional 108,000 acre-feet per year would be diverted from tributaries to the San Juan River in
Colorado for uses in New Mexico under the San Juan-Chama Project. In comparison, the average
annual inflow into Navajo Reservoir, after San Juan-Chama Project diversions, is approximately

900,000 acre-feet per year, and the flow entering New Mexico in the Animas River is projected to be

approximately 600,000 acre-feet per year after anticipated future Animas-La Plata Project uses in

Colorado.
It is anticipated that the continuing negotiations could result in execution of a Settlement

Agreement in February 2004 and introduction of a Settlement Act to Congress by March 1, 2004.

Execution of the Settlement Agreement and the Settlement Contract by the United States Secretary of

the Interior would be expected to occur upon passage of the Settlement Act into law. Also after passage

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of the Act, a Joint Hydrographic Survey would be conducted by the United States and the State of New
Mexico to identify rights of the Navajo Nation to historic and existing irrigation, recreation and
livestock uses on Navajo lands in areas tributary to the San Juan River and rights acquired by the Nation

under state law. After completion of a Joint Hydrographic Survey report, the Partial Final Decree would

be completed and a joint motion would be submitted to the court in the San Juan River Adjudication

requesting that the Partial Final Decree be made final and binding on all claimants in the Adjudication.

The proposed Settlement Agreement would require that: (1) the Settlement Act be enacted into law by

October 31, 2006; (2) the Joint Hydrographic Survey report be completed by September 30, 2008; (3)

the Partial Final Decree be entered by the Court in the San Juan River Adjudication by December 31,

2010; and (4) the project construction and funding milestones be achieved by the specified completion

dates.

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