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<br />001597 <br /> <br />7 <br /> <br /> <br />, costs will be borne by the United States, until the tribes put <br />their water to use. ' <br />Non-Federal financial contributions to the settlement take two <br />forms; (1) up-front fmancing for the Animas-La Plata Project, <br />which project will provide a sizable portion of the tribes' water and <br />(2) payments by the State of Colorado to the tribal development <br />funds. <br />With respect to the Animas-La Plata Project, non-Federal financ- <br />ing is being provided pursuant to the requirements of the Supple- <br />mental Appropriation Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-98; 99 Stat. ~93). The <br />cost sharing agreement for which that legislation calls was entered <br />into on June 30, 1986. <br />Federal budgetary outlays for the Animas-,La Plata Project have <br />been reduced by 39 percent relative to what would have. been re- <br />quired had the project been built entirely at Federal expense as au- <br />thorized by Congress. These reductions are accomplished through <br />cash ,contributions by non-Federal parties in the amount of <br />$68,000,000 towards the construction of the first phase of the <br />project and through the non-Federal parties assuming responsibil- <br />ity for the $133,000,000 construction costs of all of the second phase <br />of the project. <br />With respect to payments to the tribes, the Agreement provides <br />that $11,000,000 will be provided by the State oCColoradotoward <br />the $60.5 million tribal development funds. $6,000,000 will be pro- <br />vided through construction by the State ofa pipeline which will de- <br />liver the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's domestic water supply from the <br />Dolores Project to its reservation. The remaining $5,000,000 will be <br />paid in cash into the tribal development funds. <br /> <br />COMMITTEE AMENDMENT <br /> <br />The Committee adopted an amendment in the nature of a substi- <br />tute. The general explanation of the amendment is set out in the <br />section-by-section analysis of this report. <br />As introduced, section 5 of H.R. 2642 specifically authorized the <br />two tribes to enter into water use contracts for the sale, exchange, <br />lease, or other temporary disposal of their water. The marketing of <br />tribal water rights secured by the Agreement and this legislation is <br />clearly contemplated by the Agreement and, by ,certain provisions <br />of the bill itself. The Department of the Interior supported, this <br />marketing authority as a means of developing tribal revenue to <br />make any required tribal payments for construction costs or for op- <br />eration, maintenance and replacement costs associated with the <br />Animas-La Plata or Dolores Projects. <br />Strong objections to this provision were registered with the Com- <br />mittee by the states of the Lower Colorado River Basin (Arizona, <br />California, and Nevada). These states took the position that the <br />management and use of the Colorado River Basin waters is gov- <br />erned by various interstate compacts, international treaties, Su- <br />preme Court decisions, and Federal and state statutes and con- <br />tracts, constituting the "Law of the River". They asserted that the <br />Law of the River prohibits the sale of water allocated for use <br />within one of the Lower or Upper Basin states and that this prohic <br />bition extends to the Indian tribes whose water rights, including <br />