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NEW MEXICO INTERSTATE STREAM COMMISSION COMMISSION MEMBERS BATAAN MEMORIAL BUILDING. ROOM 101 RICHARD P. CHENEY, Chairman, Farmington HOYT PATTISON, Vice-Chairman. Clovis THOMAS C. TURNEY, PE., Secretary, Santa Fe PALEMON A. MARTINEZ, Valdez JUHN S. BUL::i I ERBAUM, ueming PHILIP R. GRANT, Albuquerque HAROLD HOUGHTALING, Jr., Lake Arthur NARENDRA N. GUNAJI, Las Cruces PHIL H. BIDEGAIN, Tucumcari POST OFFICE BOX 25102 SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO B7504-5102 '.. ~ 15051B27-6160 fA~::5C5~e2:r-e'!!:!!:! April 8, 2002 RECEIVED APR 11 2002 Mr. Ken Beck Bureau of Reclamation Western Colorado Area Office 835 E 2nd A venue, Suite 300 Durango, Colorado 81301-5475 Colorado Water Conservauoo Boaro Dear Mr. Beck: The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (Commission) offers the following remarks in response to the Jicarilla Apache Nation's (Nation) March 22, 2002, Comments on the Advanced Preliminary Draft Environmental Impact Statement (ADEIS) for Navajo Reservoir Operations (Jicarilla Comments). The Jicarilla Comments suggest that development of the Nation's full water rights, including full use of its Navajo Reservoir Supply water pursuant to its contract with the Secretary of the Interior, should be included in the Navajo Dam Operations Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as non-binding uses. As part of its argument, the Jicarilla Comments liken such inclusion to the inclusion of non-binding water uses by the Colorado Ute Tribes in the Animas-La Plata Project (ALP) Final Supplemental EIS (FSEIS). A distinction to be made here, however, is that the projected water uses by the Colorado Ute Tribes are the uses of the ALP that were evaluated for the FSEIS and in Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 7 consultation on the ALP. Likewise, the projected water uses by the Nation will be the uses of a project or projects to be evaluated in a project-specific EIS and ESA Section 7 consultation. Yet, the Jicarilla Comments essentially suggests that the scope of the Navajo Dam Operations EIS should be expanded to cover National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance and provide for ESA compliance for both Navajo Dam operations and a non-binding project or projects to use water by the Nation. To do so would be to go beyond the scope of the Federal Register notice of preparation of the draft EIS for Navajo Dam operations. The NEP A and ESA compliance activities for projected future water uses or projects of the Nation should be handled separately in the same manner as current NEPA and ESA compliance activities for the Navajo- Gallup Water Supply Project (NGWSP). 00710