BOARD02075

• Board Meeting Date: 5/22/2000
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Basin Issues - San Juan Basin Section 7 Consultation Issues
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Agenda Item 17g - San Juan Section 7 Consultations
May 22-23, 2000 Board Meeting
Page3of3

San Juan Basin well be difficult once the balance of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project
has been completed because the flow recommendations as presently configured may not
always be satisfied. We are concemed that Colorado not be unnecessarily limited in its
future development potential. Absent a specific project, one way to try and address this
is to seek consultation on future blocks of water development in the San Juan Basin of
Colorado. There are a number of issues to consider in this process and we are working
with the Southwest Water Conservation District to try and structure a generic request to
the FWS for consultation on upto 20,000 AF of water that could be developed over the
next 15 to 40 years. The development would be assigned to three geographic areas
within Colorado and have a monthly distribution pattem. If we can make sufficient
progress on this concept prior to the May board meeting, we may ask the Board to
consider endorsing the proposal at least in concept.

Conclusion

Given the rush to tie up large blocks of water through the Section 7 consultation process
for Indian Trust Assets in the San Juan River basin, and absent a signed settlement
agreement with the Navajo Nation, the State's of Colorado and New Mexico need to take
some actions to try and avoid the state water right system being circumvented by the
consultation process. A Hydrology Committee can help, but the FWS still has ultimate
responsibility for the Section 7 Consultation process. Thus, some type of application or
process within the FWS is needed to assure that non-Indian water users in Colorado have
equal access to reasonable amounts of any developable water.