WSP00178 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

COMMENTS ON THE DEIS NAVAJO RESERVOIR OPERATIONS Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources & Department of Justice Page 6 projects are viable, Even without long pipelines, these tributary tracts could readily utilize water that is tributary to the San Juan River, Comment 12, Page 111-26, Top Paragraph The DEIS speculates that it will take ten years to complete NIIP and that full irrigation would not be reached until 2032, The DEIS should provide some justification for this schedule or perhaps provide a range of schedules, Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources opines that a block of NIIP should be fully functional within five years of its completion, Perhaps the DEIS is intending to describe the point in time when NIIP's return flows would reach equilibrium, Comment 13, Page 111-26, San Juan River Irrigation Projects The reference to irrigation projects along the San Juan River being initiated between 1900 and 1937 is generally true with respect to non-Indian farming, However, Navajos have been irrigating along the San Juan River prior to the first non-Indian farmers. (comment 14. Page 111-26, Paragraph #2 . Contrary to the assertion that the Cudei Siphon is scheduled , to be completed in 2002, the siphon is completed and was ~functioning during the 2002 irrigation season, Comment 15, Page 111-35, ALP Project Construction The DEIS calculates benefits from the Animas-La Plata Project 'water by projecting estimated annual revenue generated from "water 'sales," The range of these values is $68,57 to $600 per acre- foot, The $68,57 per acre-foot value is the CRSP M&I rate for raw, untreated water, This is not a market value for the water, The CRSP rate is based on the federal rates for capital repayment, and I for the CRSP operation and maintenance, The $600 value represents the typical retail rates in the surrounding communities for treated M&I water, Thus, the DEIS compares "apples" to "oranges," If the DEI5 evaluation is based on a "market value" for raw water, comparable benchmarks for long-term water leases in the basin should be utilized, However, the real benefit of the water supply should not be measured by assuming that the water has value only as a commodity, In the case of the Shiprock area, the 4,680 acre-feet of may water may readily sustain a community with a population of 20,000 people, Therefore, the real benefit of this water supply goes beyond the market value of 4,680 acre-feet, Under the No Action Alternative, DOl::!!,;)