U.S. Water News Online
SANTA FE -- A 40-year-old lawsuit over water rights on the Pojoaque, Nambe and Tesuque rivers is close to a settlement, but questions remain over how much the federal government will pay for a regional water system that is the agreement's cornerstone.
Representatives of the state, Santa Fe County, non-Indian well owners and the pueblos of Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso and Tesuque are to sign a settlement in the lawsuit, known as the Aamodt case after the first name in a lengthy list of water claimants.
The lawsuit was filed in 1966 by the state engineer's office to adjudicate water rights in the Nambe and Pojoaque areas north of Santa Fe. The case includes the four pueblos and thousands of non-Indian water users, including the city and county of Santa Fe.
Settlement talks began in 2000.
Under the agreement revealed earlier this year, the federal government will be asked to appropriate about $150 million for a regional water system, which will cost an estimated $172 million to $177 million.
The state has agreed to pitch in about $17 million. The county will pay up to $10 million.
A settlement proposal in 2004 fell apart when the Bush administration balked at paying most of a $280 million price tag to build a regional system to pipe water to the Pojoaque Valley from the Rio Grande. At one point, the administration refused to commit to more than $11 million.
The latest proposal scaled down the regional water system.
Leaders from the pueblos, county and state are to travel to Washington, D.C., in two weeks to discuss the settlement with New Mexico's congressional delegation.
"The wild card is Congress," said Bill Hume, the governor's director of policy and issues.
"I don't expect they'll go there and come back with a ringing endorsement" because New Mexico's finances look good, he said. "They'll say, 'Since you're so well off, why don't you pick up the cost?"'
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., agreed.
"In light of a tight federal budget, securing the funds necessary to implement this settlement will be very challenging," he said.
He said the settlement "will require an appropriate local and state contribution."
But Maria Najera, a spokeswoman for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said the impediment is not Congress, but the president.
"The Bush administration hasn't been willing to invest in Indian water projects in the states, so we're concerned there won't be support for this," she said.
The settlement calls for non-Indians to reduce groundwater pumping from their wells by 15 percent, unless that's less than half an acre foot -- as is the case for most of the wells.
In exchange, the pueblos would use the water imported from the Rio Grande to support development and would not assert their senior water rights during times of drought -- meaning they would not try to cut off water supplies to non-pueblo users.
Earlier court rulings established that the pueblos had the longest-standing right to the water.
Negotiations are slated in the fall on rules to govern the water master, the division of the state engineer's office that will enforce the settlement and an "impairment fund," which will pay restitution to non-Indian wells harmed by pueblo pumping.
Finalizing the case "will still take years," said San Ildefonso Pueblo's attorney, Peter Chestnut.
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