Planning Report & Environmental Impact

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Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project City of Gallup and the Navajo Nation In 1998, the city of Gallup Mayor and the Navajo Nation President signed an agreement to cooperate on the planning for the proposed project. That document commits the city of Gallup and the Navajo Nation to: • A cooperative effort to proceed with planning and development. • A project that works conjunctively with the NIIP. • A project that will result in a fair and equitable distribution of project water between the city of Gallup and Navajo Nation communities. • A cooperative investigation of all viable alternative project configurations. • Support for the commitment of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to engage in section 7 (endangered species) consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) as quickly as possible. Reclamation, as the lead Federal agency, has responsibility for section 7 consultation. • Working together to resolve issues affecting the implementation of the proposed project. The Memorandum of Agreement(attachment A) continues to serve as the basis for the collaborative efforts of the Navajo Nation and the city of Gallup to develop the proposed project. Upper Colorado River Commission Recognizing the need to develop depletion schedules for long-range planning, the Upper Colorado River Commission (Commission) periodically assesses the depletion projections for the Upper Colorado Basin States. Projections by the State of New Mexico in May 2006 show the State not exceeding 642,400 acre-feet per year(AFY)through 2060 with full development of this proposed project (table I-1). The Commission passed a resolution in June 2003 supporting the proposed project and consenting to a diversion of water from the Upper Basin for use in the Lower Basin within New Mexico (attachment B). The Commission also passed a resolution in June 2006 supporting a proposed determination by the Secretary of the Interior(Secretary) that sufficient water is reasonably likely to be available to fulfill the project water needs in New Mexico from the Navajo Reservoir water supply (attachment B). This water is in addition to existing 1 - 6