BOARD01872

• Board Meeting Date: 9/27/1999
• Description: Colorado River Basin Issues - Interior Department's Indian Water Rights Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Department of the Interior and the Tribe, which was ratified by the 1992 Settlement Act, the
Tribe's "future use" federally reserved water right to 40,000 acre-feet per year, which has a
priority date of 1880, was subordinated to the Tribe's right to delivery of Federal contract water
from the two projects, which has a 1955 priority date. The Tribe was also given the right to
market this water through third-party contracts for use outside the Reservation subject to
approval of the Secretary and requirements and conditions of State law, Federal law, interstate
compacts, and international law as they apply to the exercise of water rights held by non-Federal,
non-Indian entities. The Tribe's water rights based on historic and existing uses on the
Reservation were also recognized in the proposed decrees, with an 1880 priority date, but the
quantum of these rights is only a fraction of the Tribe's rights under the Settlement Contract. The
Rio Chama decree was entered by the U,S. District Court in New Mexico on April 6, 1998, and
the San luan River Basin decree was entered on February 22,1999. The entry of these decrees,
together with the recent dismissal of two licarilla Apache suits against the U.S" now enables the
Tribe to seek delivery of water under the Settlement Contract, or to market that water. The Tribe
also received a trust fund of$6 million in settlement of its suits against the U.S.

The Secretary's actions under the Settlement Contract are subject to compliance with the
National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Because only the SlCP
water portion of the Tribe's settlement water has been included in the San Juan River Basin
baseline for ESA Section 7 consultation on projects in the Basin, the Tribe is concerned that it
may have to wait for many years before it can exercise its contract rights from Navajo Reservoir.
The Tribe must share shortages with NIIP and other SlCP beneficiaries under the terms of the
1962 Project Act.

2. WATER DEVELOPMENT IN THE SAN JUAN RIVER BASIN

Private rights were recorded as early as 1876 in the San luan River in New Mexico for the
purpose of irrigation, and on the Animas and La Plata Rivers in New Mexico in 1877, The Cities
of Aztec and Fannington perfected some of the first rights on the Animas River. In Colorado,
the first rights recorded in the basin were the Animas Ditch rights for irrigation in 1874.
Irrigation rights were also Iecorded in Colorado on the Mancos River in 1874, on the Pine River
in 1877, and on the La Plata River in 1880. Filings covering the estimated water requirements
for approximately 18,000 acres of Southern Ute Indian Tribe were awarded the number one
priority water right for 212 cubic feet per second from the Pine River by the Federal District
Court in 1930 in the Morrison Ditch case.

With mineral exploration in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado on the Ute Reservation in the
1870's to 1880's, water was developed for mining and for agriculture in support of the mining
industry, Persistent invasions of Reservation land by the miners led to open warfare throughout
most of the area. Temporary peace was established in 1874 when the United States bought a
three million-acre tract called the Ute Ceded Lands from the Ute Indians, including the main

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