Water rights move to top of legislative list

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — After four decades of planning and legal wrangling, the San Juan River Water Rights Settlement and the millions of dollars worth of water supply projects it makes possible are now officially in the hands of the United States Congress.

According to the staff of Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the New Mexico democrat introduced a bill asking for federal approval of the settlement Friday, just before the 109th Congress came to a close. Democratic Rep. Tom Udall introduced a similar bill in the House of Representatives.

It's been over a year-and-a-half since the Navajo Nation and the State of New Mexico signed off on the settlement, which resolves all the tribe's claims to the waters of the San Juan. Guided by the deal, Bingaman's bill includes 600,000 acre feet of water for the Navajo Nation per year and authorizes federal funding for the Navajo-Gallup water supply project.

The centerpiece of the infrastructure upgrades the settlement calls for and of Gallup's efforts to secure its long-term water supply the project envisions the construction of a pipeline that would deliver more than 30,000 acre feet of water per year from the San Juan River Basin to Gallup and the eastern reaches of the Navajo Nation. Because the federal government is still finalizing the costs of the project, estimated to reach $1.4 billion by the time it's finished, Bingaman's bill does not include a specific dollar amount. It does, however, include language guaranteeing that federal funds be available, according to the senator's office.

For all the work that's already gone into the settlement, all parties agree that Friday's introduction of the bill is but the beginning of the federal legislative process. Its backers must continue the work of building congressional support for the measure in Washington. And even if approved, it will likely take some 20 years for all the federal funding the settlement calls for to materialize.

City officials, meanwhile, are particularly worried about the U.S. Interior Department, through which any federal funds for the pipeline would likely flow. Mayor Bob Rosebrough said he's noticed a conspicuous lack of interest in the project from the department under the Bush administration. He's called the department's indifference the biggest obstacle to the project's success.

Although Bingaman introduced the bill on its own, he could yet add it to a larger "omnibus" bill including several other regional water settlements, a move that could make its defeat more difficult.

And it can only help the bill's cause that Bingaman will be taking over as chairman of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee when a newly Democratic Congress reconvenes in January.