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JUL-2'-88 MON 09:27 AM FAX NU. r. 11 000771 The Settlement Agreement specified certain contingencies that had to be met before the settlement became final. The parties agreed to submit consent decrees to the Division 7 water court for judicial approval. A stipulation setting forth this commitment was filed, but was subject to legislative enactment by the United States Congress and Colorado legislature prior to becoming final. Congress enacted legislation in 1988, which approved the settlement and contained all the provisions contemplated by the parties, except for those relating to the interstate marketing of water. IS The final Act limited use of Tribal rights in the Lower Colorado River Basin until a final court order or agreement of all seven Colorado River Basin States has previously allowed such right for non-federal, non-Indian water rights. Moreover, the Act provides that any use of water off-Reservation will result in the right being changed to a state of Colorado water right for the term of such use. The Colorado General Assembly also enacted the legislation contemplated by the Settlement Agreement. This legislation appropriated $5 million to the Tribal Development Funds, so much as needed for the Towaoc Pipeline, and $5.6 million for the Ridges Basin cost sharing. In December 1991, the Colorado Water Court approved the consent decrees that had been submitted to it based on the stipulations entered pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, and following the enactment of necessary federal and state legislation. In summary, all of the conditions of the settlement have been satisfied, except for the construction of the Animas-La Plata Project, and the Agreement remains in effect. However, the Tribes have tb~right to terminate the Agreement if all the terms and conditions are not met. j Some conditions have changed since the Agreement was made. When the Settlement Agreement was executed in 1986 and federal legislation passed in 1988, there was no issue regarding the impacts of Project operations on endangered fish species in the San Juan Basin. In 1990, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service determined that Project depletions could jeopardize endangered fish populations in the basin. Imme~iately, the states of Colorado and New Mexico, the Department of the Interior and area water users began to develop a recovery program for the fish. This recovery program is based on a similar program that had been developed for the Upper Colorado River Basin. It commits the states, Fish and Wildlife Service and water users to actions such as the re-operation offederal facilities, habitat acquisition and development, and stocking. The overarching goal ofthe program is to recover the native fish community while allowing for full development of the Compact entitlements of the states of Colorado and New Mexico. In 1996, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a biological opinion, which determined that a total of 57,100 acre feet of water per year, plus all existing uses, could be depleted from the San Juan Basin under the Animas-La Plata Project, without jeopardizing the continued existence of the fish. This opinion was based on the existence of the program, the dedication of 300,000 acre feet of IS The Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act of 1988, PoL. 100-585, 102 Stat. 2973. 9