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<br />( <br /> <br />001552 <br /> <br />~~;j~ <br /> <br />,',,:\\:-', <br />'Q;~0 <br /> <br />it understood the need to placate the Navajo Nation which held the <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />paramount water rights to the San Juan River. In order to obtain <br /> <br />Navajo consent 'for a large transbasin diversion, the state of New <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Mexico supported the Navajo Nation's efforts to obtain federal <br />support for a large-scale irrigation project built near Shiprock, <br /> <br />New Mexico. <br /> <br />In return for the development of a 110,630 acre Navajo Indian <br /> <br />Irrigation Project (NIIP) that would use 508,000 acre-feet of water <br /> <br />per year, the Navajo Nation agreed not to assert its paramount <br />Winters claim to 110,000 acre-feet of water from the San Juan <br /> <br />River. <br /> <br />That amount would be diverted annually through the San <br /> <br />Juan-Chama Project. <br /> <br />New Mexico understood the enormity of the <br /> <br />potential reserved water rights of the Navajo Nation to San Juan <br /> <br />River water; therefore, it insisted on the sharing of shortages <br /> <br />provision of the authoriZing legislation which requires NIIP to <br /> <br />share shortages on a'pro rata basis with the San Juan-Chama Project <br /> <br />in the ,event that water for botl1 projects, would not be available. <br /> <br />Without this provision, water for, the transbasi,n diversion would be <br /> <br />unavailable if the Navajo Nation were to fully, develop all of its <br /> <br />reserved water, including water for municipal and industrial uses. <br /> <br />In 1962 Congress authorized NIIP and the San Juan-Chama Project to <br /> <br />be jointly built. Today, 60,000 of the 110,630 NIIP project acres <br /> <br />are currently irrigated. <br /> <br />26 <br /> <br />I <br />i" :J <br />