Gallup pipeline for real?
Navajo water settlement advances in Senate

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Diné Bureau

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted 66-12 Sunday to move forward with a major package of bills that benefit the Navajo Nation and New Mexico, setting the stage for another procedural vote in the next few days.

The package, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., could receive a final vote late next week.

Included in the package are bills to settle Navajo Nation water rights claims in the San Juan River Basin, construct a pipeline in eastern New Mexico and help water managers better plan for the future.

The Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects legislation, which reflects a 2005 agreement between the state of New Mexico and Navajo and which needs congressional approval, was introduced previously by Bingaman and Sen. Tom Udall.

It recognizes approximately 600,000 acre-feet per year of water to the Navajo Nation for agricultural, municipal, industrial, domestic and livestock watering purposes. It also authorizes federal funding for the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project and various water conservation projects in the basin.

Under the proposal, the federal government would contribute funding over about two decades to construct the pipeline and perform other activities to implement the agreement. The bill authorizes $870 million to construct the project, although some of that cost will be paid by the state of New Mexico and the communities served.

The measure also provides an assured source of funding to pay for the project by setting aside surplus revenues in the Reclamation Fund to pay for the Navajo settlement and future settlements.

Among other bills in the package are the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, the Rio Puerco Watershed Management Program, the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System project, the Secure Water Act and the New Mexico water resources study.