BOARD01872

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

THE DEFERRAL AGREEMENT

On September 20, 1965, the Tribe entered into an agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation and
the Central Utah Water Conservancy District to defer development of 15,242 acres of tribal land,
which were not included in the Uintah Indian Irrigation Project, but for which a tribal water right
of approximately 60,000 acre-feet is claimed. The lands were principally in the Rock Creek area
which is a tributary to the Duchesne River. This has been referred to as the "Deferral
Agreement." The deferral was necessary in order for the Secretary of the Interior to certify to
Congress that a sufficient water supply was available to justify construction of the Bonneville
Unit, a non-Indian component of the Central Utah Project (CUP) that diverts over 100,000 acre-
feet of water from the Duchesne River system (in the Colorado River Basin) and delivers that
water west through the Wasatch Mountains to the Bonneville Basin.

In consideration for the Tribe's agreement to defer its development of tribal land, the United
States agreed to develop a significant portion of the Tribe's water rights appurtenant to that land
through the authorization and construction of the Upalco and Uintah Storage Units of the CUP,
as well as authorization for planning of a third unit, the Ute Indian Unit (not to be confused with
the Ute Indian Irrigation Project operated and owned by the BIA). Construction of the Uintah
and Upalco Units of the CUP was to occur as soon as possible, but no later than January I, 2005,
and would provide storage for tribal water use, including the storage necessary to assure full
water deliveries to lands within the Uintah Indian Irrigation Project and to provide a full water
supply to the deferred lands. In addition, the parties agreed to the full recognition of the Tribe's
water rights for its Groups 1-3 lands, as well as for lands identified in the Decker Report at
Groups 4 and 5, without resort to litigation.

The State of Utah joined in the Deferral Agreement by Concurrent Resolution of the State
legislature on October 2, 1973, and the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968 reiterated the
commitment of the Secretary in the Deferral Agreement:

That the planning report for the Ute Indian unit of the Central Utah participating project
shall be completed on or before December 21, 1974, to enable the United States of
America to meet the commitment heretofore made to the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah
and Ouray Indian Reservation under the agreement dated September 20, 1965 (Contract
No, 14-06-W-194), (Believed to be Committee Report language.)

UTE INDIAN RIGHTS SETTLEMENT OF 1992

By the late 1980s, it was apparent that the Uintah and Upalco Units, as originally configured, and
the Ute Indian Unit in any configuration, would not be built and that the supplemental and
replacement water promised to the Tribe in the Deferral Agreement would not be developed, In
1992, the Federal construction commitments in the Deferral Agreement were altered by the Ute
Indian Rights Settlement, Title V of the CUPCA (Public Law 102-575) (Settlement), The

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