U.S. Water News Online
SANTA FE -- Lawyers in a long-running lawsuit over who owns water around the Pojoaque Valley say they will continue talks rather than move ahead with a settlement proposal that has sparked opposition.
U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez, presiding over the case, said negotiations will continue until next spring.
Talks began in 2000 to reach a settlement in the case, known as the Aamodt lawsuit after the first name in alphabetical order listed.
The proposed settlement, released in February, calls for the federal government to pay most of the cost of building a $280 million regional water system to serve the Pojoaque Valley and Tesuque. Non-Indian water users would have to disconnect their wells and transfer their water rights to a private, nonprofit water agency. In exchange, they would get service from a regional system.
The four pueblos involved in the lawsuit, who hold the oldest water rights, would secure additional water supplies and in turn would agree not to try to cut off the water supply for the regional system.
However, Bennett Raley, assistant U.S. secretary of the interior for water and science, said the federal government has not identified a source of water rights on the Rio Grande to supply the proposed regional system.
The non-Indian water users have raised significant opposition to being forced to cap their wells. They've also complained that negotiations went on behind closed doors and that the settlement was presented to them as a done deal.
Vazquez agreed to let two representatives of the non-Indian opponents sit in on continuing discussions. Santa Fe attorney Bob Sena and Paul White of Chupadero will represent the non-Indians who have concerns.
"We have a lot of people who are affected, and they didn't know what we were doing, and they need to know," Vazquez said.
But she also stressed that non-Indians must realize the case will go to trial if no settlement agreement is reached.
"If the case goes to me, the issue is not 'How do we be good neighbors and share the water?'" but rather enforcing water law, Vazquez said.
New Mexico law recognizes those who put water to use first -- in this case the pueblos -- have senior water rights. Only when those senior rights have been satisfied may those with junior rights have any water.
State officials and lawyers involved in the case have emphasized that accepting the agreement is the best chance for non-Indians to secure a long-term water supply. They warned that a lack of an agreement could lead to the pueblos' seeking to cut off those with junior water rights.
The case began in 1966 when the state engineer, New Mexico's water czar, sued all water users in the Pojoaque, Tesuque and Nambe watersheds to determine the extent of Indian and non-Indian water rights. The lawsuit involves more than 2,800 claimants, dozens of acequias and the Pojoaque, Tesuque, Nambe and San Ildefonso pueblos.
Pojoaque Pueblo Lt. Gov. George Rivera said it's a good sign that Vazquez decided to let talks continue. Everyone will lose if the case goes to trial, Rivera said.
"If more people need to get educated about what the real water issue is and what the legal posture of the case is, that's all positive," he said.
Rivera said he didn't expect a huge turnaround in the case but it would be good "to hear everybody out and see if there are accommodations that can be made on all sides."
New Mexico's congressional delegation has said no federal money for the proposed regional water system will be available until a settlement is approved.
While negotiations have been behind closed doors so far, U.S. Magistrate Leslie Smith, who works on the case for Vazquez, said it's possible the court will consider lifting or modifying the secrecy order.
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