U.S. Water News Online
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. -- The Navajo Nation Council has approved a proposed settlement that would end a decades-old lawsuit regarding water rights in the San Juan Basin of northwest New Mexico.
The council attempted to take up the matter at an earlier meeting but did not have a quorum. During a special session, the council finished reading the settlement into the record and voted 62-18 in favor of the deal.
The settlement agreement establishes the Navajos' rights to more than more than 600,000 acre-feet of water -- about 56 percent of the available depletion water on the San Juan Basin.
In return, the Navajos would give up 44 percent of their water right claim in the basin.
Some people had concerns that the settlement would result in off-reservation water users losing their rights, but New Mexico State Engineer John D'Antonio said the agreement would protect non-Navajo water right owners.
The settlement is the result of closed-door negotiations between the engineer's office and the tribe, which spans parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
The state engineer's office released the first draft of the settlement Dec. 5, 2003. A second draft was released July 9 after public comments and a third draft was released this month.
The latest draft removed more than $372 million that would have been used to help finish the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, a canal system at the Navajo Agricultural Product Industry's farm south of Farmington.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., had insisted on the removal of the funding because he said the overall settlement was too expensive for congressional passage.
In addition to Congress, the state attorney general and the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission must approve the settlement.
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