BOARD01962

• Board Meeting Date: 3/22/2005
• Description: WSP Section - Navajo Nation Federal Reserved Water Right Settlement with the State of New Mexico
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

. Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
WWW".cwcb.state.co.us

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MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

TO:

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

Russell George
Executive Director

FROM:

Randy SeallOIm, Chief, Water Supply Protection~

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

DATE:

March 10, 2005

Dan McAuliffe
_ Deputy Director

SUBJECT: Agenda Item 31, March 22-23,2005 Board Meeting
Water Supply Protection, Navajo Nation Federal Reserved Water Right
Settlement with the State of New Mexico

Backl!round

Attached hereto is the most recent draft of the Executive Summary (ES) of the "San Juan River
Basin in New Mexico, Navajo Nation Water Rights Settlement" dated December 10, 2004. Rather
than attempt to summarize the proposed settlement agreernent with its extensive qualifications, I
have elected to let the summary speak for itself. The Board discussed an earlier draft of the
proposed settlement at its January 2004 meeting and provided New Mexico with Comments on
February 12, 2004.

Discussion

The Navajo Nation approved the December 10, 2004 draft settlement agreement on December 29,
2004 by a vote of 62 to 18. The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission unanimously approved
the same on January 12,2005. Subsequently, the New Mexico House on February 23,2005
approved "Joint Memorial 53" expressing appreciation to all involved for reaching a potential
settlement of the Navajo Nation's water rights by a vote of63 to O. The settlement agreement has
you can see has a considerable amount of momentum, although it still must be accepted by the State
Attorney General and signed by the Governor and the Navajo Nation before being presented to the
New Mexico congressional delegation for introduction into the U.S. Congress for enactment.

As noted, Colorado provided comments to New Mexico on February 12, 2004. Colorado's
comments were addressed as follows:

1. Does the settlement actually keep New Mexico within its compact apportionment under the

current "Hydrologic Determination"? The settlement agreements appear to accomplish this.

However, New Mexico is advancing a depletion schedule that assumes that 5% of the Irrigated

land is fallow at any given point in time. If this does not occur, New Mexico would rely on

Colorado Water Conservation Board
Flood ProteGtion. Water Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply !jotection. Conservation and Drought Planning