C150307 Final Supplimental Impact Statement

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senior water rights,the ALP Project as proposed provides a dependable l Navajo Nat on spply supply neighboring Indian and non-Indian community water needs, including J Shiprock,New Mexico,the Animas La Plata Water Conservancy is the (ate W of D)and do the San the Juan La IWater Commission(SJWC). In addition,water would be provided Plata Conservancy District in New Mexico from the Colorado Ute Tribal allocation. It should be noted that the non-federal parties of the Settlement Agreement,working with their congressional representatives,have introduced proposed legislation The t o F . 3 12 and and 2508)in reflects response to the Administration Proposal and the ongoing NEPA process. project the reality that the pending legislation will likely result in benefits to the Colorado Ute Indian Tribes that eliminate the irrigation component and provide substitute ene are equivalent to those that the Tribes would have received under the Settlement Act. See Chapter 2, Section 2.1.1 for further discussion of this issue. Water Rights of the Colorado Ute Tribes Based on the Supreme Court's decision in Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564(1908),when Congress or the President establishes an Indian Reservation,there is reserved the amount of water necessary in order to accomplish the purposes of the reservation. Under the iterthe priority oof at etunique which the reservation is entitled is no later than the date of creation aspects of Indian reserved water rights is that they are not subject to the beneficial use requirements("use or lose")of state water law. Indian water rights,therefore,may not be diminished for failing to meet a beneficial use standard under state law. As a general rule, Indian water rights are very senior and because these rights are premised on sufficient water being reserved to insure full utilization of the purposes of the reservation,both presently and in the future, Indian water rights are usually sizeable in quantity. The Colorado Ute Tribes'reserved water rights arise from an 1868 treaty was with"the apart for the absolute. 15 s at 619. This treaty states that the land which is now part of the res and undisturbed use and occupation"by the Colorado Ute Tribes. Art.XIII. Additionally,the treaty provides for the basic tools, facilities and livestock needed to become self-sustaining. Based on these broad purposes,the tribes are entitled to make a claim for water in the Animas and La Plata basins. The Colorado Ute Tribes have over 25,000 acres of arable land in the immediate the vicinity for a 80zeable water which were to be irrigated by the original ALP Project) and therefore rights claim based solely on the agricultural purposes of their reservations. In return for not asserting a possibly sizeable claim, the Colorado Ute Tribes will receive a much smaller amount of"wet water"for settling their Winters rights. , the Because the Animas La Plata project is a settlement of the Colorado with Ute Tribal federal law. As of his time the ultimate use of the water is left to tribal discretion in accordance tribes have not conclusively specified to what end uses they will put their water. Because NEPA requires the federal government to make a reasonable projection of the potential environmental onn developed ante que ces of any proposed action,Reclamation, in conjunction with input from the P use scenarios on how the Tribes could put their water to use in order to effectively evaluate the potential environmental effects of settling the water rights claims of the Colorado Ute Tribes and providing for identified M&I uses in the project area. Reclamation believes that this approach fulfills the requirements of NEPA while not impinging upon the sovereignty of the Colorado Ute Tribes. i 4 Any future actions would be subject to future environmental review,and NEPA compliance would be "triggers"for required as part of any approval by a federal agency. Future federal actions would serve as trig future NEPA compliance activities, and could include future connection to a federal facility for water conveyance enlargement or extension of certain existing conveyance systems, and, certain uses of a water ES-2