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" Mr. Ken Beck April 8, 2002 Page 3 Indian irrigation uses in New Mexico, the difference between the total water rights acreage and the baseline acres is on the order of 10,000 acres, which corresponds to a depletion of over 20,000 acre-feet. Contrary to the non-Indian historic irrigation uses in New Mexico, the baseline depletions in the ADEIS include depletions associated with irrigation of the full water right acreage for the historic and existing irrigation use rights of the Nation, regardless of the level of actual use of said acreage during the hydrology evaluation period. The baseline depletions also were developed asswning some measure by the BIA of the Navajo Nation's water rights acreages for the Fruitland-Cambridge, Hogback and Cudei Irrigation Projects along the San Juan River. The baseline depletions in the hydrology modeling for the Navajo Nation's San Juan River projects are based on the docwnented maximwn total acres irrigated within said projects within any given year during the period used for the hydrologic modeling (1929-1993), but the depletions associated with the remainder of the water rights acreages for said projects, as asswned by the BIA, were also included in the baseline depletions, albeit they were transferred to the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (NIIP) for purposes of ESA compliance. The baseline depletion for the NIIP in the ADEIS reflects irrigation of each and every acre of the Project each and every year. The Commission believes, however, that it is only reasonable to assume that some project acreage would be fallow or not irrigated each year due to irrigation water distribution system problems, irrigation rotations and other farm management practices. The Commission asswnes for its planning purposes that, on average, five percent of the NJIP acreage will not be irrigated in any given year. It is the Commission's understanding also that the baseline depletions for irrigation uses in Colorado are based on the full decreed water rights acreages in the San Juan River Basin in that State. To add to the baseline depletions an amount which might correspond to full irrigation of project acreage under the Jicarilla Apache Navajo River Water Development Plan would cause further inconsistency in treatment between non-Indian irrigation uses in New Mexico and other irrigation uses. In addition, it appears that it might result in double-counting of depletions because the ADEIS, Indian Trust Assets and Environmental Justice Section, describes the Water Development Plan as providing irrigation water to some lands that have been previously irrigated, the irrigation of which would already be included in the baseline under the historic and existing use rights. In any event, the Commission is not aware of any reason why the non-Indian irrigation uses in New Mexico should be treated differently in the environmental baseline than the other irrigation uses in the Basin. The Commission has previously identified other problems it perceives in the baseline depletions used by the ADEIS, including the use of the modified Blaney-Criddle method to estimate irrigation depletions and the neglect of shortages to irrigation uses such as those that occur each year in the La Plata River drainage. The Service has stated to members of the SJRBRlP Coordination Committee that the environmental baseline depletions are subject to review by the Service with each ESA Section 7 consultation. Yet, the BIA's representative at the March 26, 2002, SJRBRlP Hydrology Committee meeting expressed the BIA's view that the baseline depletions, and the methodologies for detennining the depletions, cannot hereafter be changed for projects which have already undergone Section 7 consultation, such as the NIIP. Such a view ct.;'":!