New Mexico, like other Western states, is grappling with American Indian water rights.

Tribes and pueblos have the oldest water rights in the state, older than those of farmers, ranchers and towns. Under New Mexico law, Indian rights to water are supposed to be met before anyone else’s.

But no one ever determined how much water Indian tribes and pueblos are entitled to, and that has led to decades-long battles in court.

New Mexico has settlements pending in three longtime Indian water rights cases: the Aamodt case, involving four pueblos north of Santa Fe in the Pojoaque Valley, Navajo claims in the San Juan River Basin and Taos Pueblo’s claims in the Taos Valley. All three settlements still need approval and funding from state legislators and Congress. Until the settlements are finalized, the water rights of thousands of people, Indian and non-Indian, and billions of gallons of water remain uncertain.

New Mexico legislators will consider Gov. Bill Richardson’s request this session for $12 million as a down payment on the three settlements. Other legislators could ask for more or less money toward the state’s share of the costs.

Only the Navajo settlement is close to a congressional debate. The other two are held up by disagreements over water supplies and costs.

The projected cost to settle all three disputes is $1.2 billion. The state’s share of the total could range from $66.5 million to $294 million, according to the Legislative Finance Committee. The state is asking the federal government to pay for $1 billion of the tab.

Each settlement will be handled separately by Congress.

Aamodt

The Aamodt suit was filed 41 years ago by the state to determine how much water should be allocated to residents and four pueblos in the Rio Pojoaque Basin. As the case dragged on for decades, many defendants died and were replaced by heirs, swelling the number of parties to more than 3,000. No accurate count of defendants exists, but the total is believed to be between 3,000 and 4,000.

An attorney working on the Aamodt water rights lawsuit said parties are waiting for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to finish an engineering study before moving forward on the case. John Utton, an attorney working on the case for Santa Fe County, said the study should be available in the spring. The study will enable parties to determine the feasibility and cost of a regional water system, the cornerstone of the proposed settlement.

To proceed with the case, the county needs 1,500 acre-feet of water, and the pueblos and federal government need 2,500 acre-feet. Together, the governments have acquired 2,800 acre-feet, leaving them 1,200 acre-feet short, Utton said. Parties to the case hope the Bureau of Reclamation will allocate water from the San Juan Chama Project in Colorado to cover their remaining needs.

In December, parties in the case told U.S. Chief District Judge Martha Vázquez that they would draft federal legislation that, if passed by Congress, would force the federal government to pay for a share of the regional water system. They also said they would work on an agreement to divide the costs of the water utility. Both should be complete by March, they said.

The latest settlement proposal was unveiled last February. Under its terms, non-Indian residents will relinquish their personal wells in exchange for a regional water system. Additionally, Indians have agreed not to assert their senior water rights during drought and use imported water for construction projects. The county and city of Santa Fe, state of New Mexico and Nambé, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso and Tesuque pueblos have signed the settlement. But several residents in the area oppose the deal, claiming it is unfair, even though their attorneys recommend settling.

Taos Pueblo

Taos Pueblo’s claims to water in the Taos Valley impacted a wide variety of water users from acequia associations, with their own historic agriculture claims, to the town and community water systems.

In March, a draft settlement over water rights in the Taos Valley was reached between Taos Pueblo, the acequia association, the state, the town of Taos, El Prado Water and Sanitation District and 12 community water associations. The settlement involves claims to the Rio Hondo and Rio Pueblo de Taos.

Most unique about the settlement is that talks were initiated by Taos Pueblo and the Taos Valley Acequia Association, the two groups with the oldest water rights. The acequia association represents 55 ditches and 7,000 irrigators.

“The long and hard work of (Taos) Pueblo and its neighbors on this agreement has led to a foundation upon which we can all build a relationship for the future,” said Nelson Cordova, Taos Pueblo water-rights coordinator, when the settlement was presented to the public.

The agreement didn’t come easy, Cordova said. Many times people wanted to leave the negotiating table and never return. But they stuck it out, and the result is a hard-earned agreement.

The settlement provides a way for everyone in the valley to share water during shortages.

It helps ensure water to non-Pueblo people in the valley and helps protect flows in the rivers. It also is meant to end a long-running dispute between the pueblo and acequias over flows in the Rio Lucero through construction of a water storage project.

Parties to the settlement are seeking at least $14 million from the state toward the settlement.

Navajo

The Navajo settlement is about more than water rights. The settlement, if approved, guarantees better water supplies via pipelines and pump stations to thousands of Navajo people who still haul water in the eastern part of the Navajo Nation.

The case, filed in 1976, involves all the water rights in the San Juan River Basin in the northwestern part of New Mexico. Part of the reason the case was filed was to ensure water from the San Juan-Chama project would be protected for the Bureau of Reclamation and towns like Santa Fe that wanted to lease the water, according to John Leeper, director of the Navajo Nation’s water management branch.

Santa Fe is one of several entities contracting with the Bureau of Reclamation for water from the San Juan-Chama project. Santa Fe will eventually divert its share of San Juan-Chama water directly from the Rio Grande via the Buckman Diversion.

The battles over San Juan water have the potential to be bitter and affect people across the state.

“The Navajo Nation has taken the position in the past that all the water within the four sacred mountains (Blanca Peaks, Huerfano, San Francisco Peaks and Mount Taylor) is theirs to use,” Leeper said. “That type of argument doesn’t lead you to a very satisfactory discussion with state of New Mexico.”

Meanwhile, non-Indian farmers along the lush San Juan River valleys were up in arms, claiming the Navajo water rights had already been determined.

The clash between those positions “would create a stalemate and tear communities apart,” Leeper said.

In 1997, New Mexico’s state engineer and the Navajo Nation began talking about settling the claims. A draft settlement was issued in 2003 and released for public comment. Two years later, the final settlement was announced.

The Navajo Nation has the right to divert 606,000 acre-feet of water from the San Juan River under the settlement, and to consume 325,000 acre-feet. The settlement includes a provision to fund and build a $710 million water pipeline from the San Juan River to Gallup across Navajo land and a pipeline to several small communities near Cuba. Water systems in Fruitland, N.M., and Hogback, N.M., would be renovated.

The settlement protects the water rights of non-Indian farmers. But the amount of those rights have yet to be determined, Leeper said.

The settlement also protects the water supplies for the three electric generating plants currently operating in the Four Corners area, which rely on San Juan water, Leeper said.

“Eighty percent of New Mexico’s power is generated in that area,” Leeper said. “So the settlement has impacts far beyond just the Navajo Nation.”

Some Navajos and some non-Indian irrigators remain unhappy with the settlement. Navajos think the tribe has given up too much water, and irrigators think the tribe received too much.

December was the deadline for Congress to consider the Navajo settlement. In mid-December, Richardson, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley and then-Attorney General Patricia Madrid agreed to extend the deadline two years.

Funding the Navajo water rights settlements and Navajo-Gallup pipeline is a top priority for Richardson’s water task force, as it was last year, according to task force member Conci Bokum.

The funding holdup

Any money the legislators approve toward the settlements will be set aside in a special account, said Bill Hume, the governor’s water policy chief. “The state is serious about meeting its obligations, but we expect the federal government to step up and meet its trust responsibility,” Hume said.

To arrive at the $12 million down payment Richardson seeks, the state took what it estimated as its share of the proposed settlements and divided it based on when the water projects under the settlements are expected to begin, Hume said. The state didn’t want to ask for all the funding necessary for all three settlements up front “and have the money sitting idle in some account,” Hume said.

Any money appropriated will go into an existing interest-bearing account for Indian water rights settlements. Funding for each settlement will be handled separately. The proposed bill includes language on what will happen to the money if the settlements should fail to be approved in Congress, Hume said.

The federal government believes in dividing the costs of each settlement based on benefits to each party. The federal government also thinks the total costs of each settlement shouldn’t be greater than the value of the water claims, according to Michael Bogert, counselor to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, speaking recently at a conference on Indian Water Rights settlements in Oregon.

The Navajo settlement is closest to achieving approval. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., introduced bills regarding the Navajo settlement in December. They’ll reintroduce them this session.

Bingaman’s spokeswoman Maria Najera said the Department of the Interior is still looking at where the water supplies will come from for the Taos and Aamodt settlements.

Bingaman has repeatedly questioned the federal government over delaying approval for New Mexico’s settlements. He said the federal government agreed to pay out $120 million for Idaho’s Snake River Indian water rights settlement and $2.2 billion for the Arizona Water Settlement involving the Gila Indians.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com; or Brandon Garcia at bgarcia@sfnewmexican.com.

AT A GLANCE

Aamodt

Year filed: 1966

Year of latest settlement proposal: 2006

Number of Pueblo people affected: no accurate count

Number of non-Indians affected: no accurate count

Estimated settlement price: $215 million to 285 million

Cost per acre-foot of water: $67,300

Taos

Year filed: 1969

Year draft of settlement was reached: 2006

Number of Pueblo people affected: 2,400

Number of non-Indians affected: More than 12,000

Estimated settlement price, 2006: $133.8 million

Cost per acre-foot of water: $16,600

Navajo

Year filed: 1976

Year settlement reached: 2005

Estimated number of Indian people affected: 70,000

Number of non-Indians affected: no accurate count

Estimated settlement cost, 2006: $700 million plus

Cost per acre-foot of water: $22,300

Sources: Navajo Nation water department, Legislative Finance Committee, settlement agreements