BOARD01504

• Board Meeting Date: 11/19/2001
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Basin Issues - Discussion on Proposed Policy Regarding the Navajo-Gallup Project in New Mexico
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Proposed
CWCB Interim Policy Concerning the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project
November 7, 2001

WHEREAS, the Navajo Nation, in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
(BOR) and the State of New Mexico, is in the process of developing the Navajo-Gallup
Water Supply Project (NGWSP); and

WHEREAS, the NGWSP would divert 37,764 acre-feet per year from the San Juan River
Basin for use in the City of Gallup and 011 Indian lands in New Mexico and Arizona, of
which it is estimated that 35,893 acre-feet per year would be consumptively used, as shown
in the attached table provided by the BOR; <Ind

WHEREAS, Article ID(a) of the Colora.do River Compact states: "There is hereby
apportioned from the Colorado River System in perpetuity to the Upper Basin and to the
Lower Basin respectivelv the exclusive beneficial consumptive use of 7,500,000 acre feet of
water per annum, which shall include all w<lter necessary for the supply of any rights which
m<lY now exist." (emphasis added); and

WHEREAS, Article VID of the Colorado River Compact states, regarding water rights
arising after the 1922 effective date of the Compact: "All other rights to beneficial use of
waters of the Colorado River System shall1::>e satisfied solely from the water apportioned to
that Basin in which thev are situate." (emph<lsis added); and

WHEREAS, the plain language of the Colorado River Compact and long-standing
interpretations of the Compact, require exclusive beneficial consumptive use of each
Basin's apportionment to be within that Basin and appear to prohibit the use of an Upper
Basin State's Upper Basin apportionment within the Lower Basin portion of that State; and

WHEREAS, the Criteria for Coordinated Long-Range Operation of Colorado River
Reservoirs adopted by the BOR sets an objective minimum release of water from Lake
Powell of 8.23 million aqe-feet per year al1d the BOR's current hydrologic determination
of water available to the Upper Basin is only 6.0 million acre-feet per year; and

WHEREAS, Colorado does not endorse either the minimum objective rele<lse or the current
hydrologic determination but has agreed to use them for planning purposes; and

WHEREAS, both New Mexico and Arizona have contractually obligated all the Upper
Basin water <Ipportioned to them under the current hydrologic determination (669,375 acre-
feet and 50,000 acre-feet, respectively) and, pursuant to Article ID(b )(:3) of the Upper
Colorado River Basin Compact, cannot make any long term commitments that exceed their
apportionments; and