WSP04842 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

, . . " O(J~(J !l4 . . coal reserves of an estimated 400 million tons. Implicit in the Winters case is the policy that as much water was reserved at the time of creating the reservation as was required to make the reservation a viable place to live. Surely included within this would be water sufficient to develop natural resources. Several alternatives to court determination of Indian water rights are being utilized or scrutinized by the Indians. First on given projects the Indians have agreed to certain water allocations which are not necessarily reflective of their claimed reserved rights. For example, the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, which was recently completed, was developed in exchange for Navajo water rights along the San Juan. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe receives 17,000 acre feet a year from the Pine River Project. The Ute Mountain Utes and Southern Utes have agreed to specified water allocations under the proposed Animas-La Plata Project. This prior agreement on water allocations makes this an appealing project, because it demonstrates cooperation among the Indian and non-Indian people who inhabit the project area. Under the present agreement the Southern Ute Tribe would receive 26,500 acre feet for municipal and industrial use (the bulk of which would be applied to coal mining) and 4,000 for irrigation, and the Ute Mountain Utes would receive 6,000 acre feet for municipal and industrial use and 21,000 acre feet for irrigation. A second alternative to court action is legislative determination, of Indian water claims_ There is a bill pending before Congress entitled the "Central Arizona Water Resources Act of 1976" introduced by Lee Metcalf, United States Senator from Montana, which would authorize and -5-