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Navajo Council passes water rights settlement on the San Juan Basin
By Jim Snyder/The Daily Times Dec 30, 2004
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - The 20th Navajo Nation Council passed, in an historic
62-18 vote Wednesday, the proposed Navajo water rights settlement on the
San Juan Basin. It was the first time in 136 years that the Navajo Nation,
which spans Arizona, Utah and New Mexico in the Four Corners, had sought its
water rights.
"This is as near an important document as the (U.S.-Navajo) Treaty of 1868
because of the water issues," Delegate Wallace Charley of Shiprock said.
The delegates' affirmative vote opened the flood gates for the Navajo
government to gain eventual control of 56 percent of the basin's diverted
water supply - totaling 606,040 acre-feet of diverted water annually.
"At the end of the day the Navajo Council voted in the right manner and
did something significant for the Navajo Nation," Navajo Vice President Frank
Dayish Jr., who witnessed the vote, said immediately afterward. The
settlement will now go to Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. for his
signature.
The settlement is far from being finalized. It must be passed by New
Mexico's Interstate Stream Commission, attorney general and the 11th Judicial
District Court for it to proceed. The complex court process could take a
decade or longer before the Navajo water rights are actually adjudicated.
U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is expected to introduce the settlement
to Congress in 2005 for funding. The settlement has more than $800 million in
water infrastructure projects attached to it - including a fresh-water
pipeline that would run from the Nenahnezad area 100 miles south to the
city of Gallup.
Delegates passed the settlement even though they had no assurance the U.S.
government would fund and finish the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project.
Domenici had taken out $372.8 million in NIIP funding to help lower the
settlement's overall cost.
The settlement will eventually give a green light for the Navajo Nation to
sell water to the proposed $2.2 billion coal-burning Desert Rock Energy
Project power plant near Burnham and for other future projects. The Navajo
government would no longer be restricted by the Department of the Interior
in using agricultural water only to grow crops. The Navajos could use and
lease water for industrial and municipal projects, since it would be
Navajo water. The Council passed the settlement late Wednesday afternoon despite two
delegates' efforts to stall it by keeping it from reaching a vote.
Delegate Ervin Keeswood of Hogback and Delegate Hope MacDonald-Lonetree of
Coalmine Canyon and Toh Nanees Dizi called numerous points of order after
debate had ceased and the vote was ready to begin.
Keeswood said he wanted a written response to questions he had about the
settlement - including what litigation the Council could face from Navajo
allottees off the reservation who were not included in the settlement.
"I'd like a response before we proceed further," Keeswood said.
He added that two memorandums had also been passed out about the
settlement that he had no chance to respond to.
"I would like to see a list created asking all 88 delegates if they have
read the document," MacDonald-Lonetree said to Council Speaker Lawrence
Morgan, prompting a negative response from some delegates because the
lengthy legislation had just been read into the record.
"This is irrelevant," Delegate LoRenzo Bates of Upper Fruitland said to
Morgan about her request.
"Let's go to the board and vote," Morgan said, not responding to Keeswood
or MacDonald-Lonetree. Morgan held a delayed vote - which meant delegates'
votes did not show up on the electronic voting board until they were locked
so they would not be influenced by how their peers were voting.
The Council held a special session Dec. 15 to vote on the settlement. Just
before the vote MacDonald-Lonetree said the legislation had to be read
into the record. Delegates became restless however after 34 pages were read and
began walking out of the chamber. The session was adjourned when they lost
a quorum of at least 45 delegates.
Keeswood called a point of order Wednesday morning saying the reading of
the legislation must be picked up where it was left off. Morgan agreed. The
reading, done by rotating legislative advisors, took 5 1/2 hours.
This time the delegates stayed until the end.
Jim Snyder: jsnyder@daily-times.com
