Navajo VP: Water Accord "Essential" 

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Passage of the proposed Navajo Nation water rights settlement on the San Juan Basin is absolutely essential to provide water and economic development to the Navajo people, Navajo Vice President Frank Dayish Jr. said Friday in a news release.

“The settlement reflects years of discussions and negotiations between the Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico to resolve the nation’s outstanding claims in the San Juan Basin,” he said.

A confidential revised draft of the settlement — currently in negotiations between the New Mexico State Engineer and the Navajo Nation — was released to the 88 Navajo Council delegates during their recent two-day closed-door water rights workshop in Window Rock.

The working revised draft has not yet been publicly released, John Whipple, with the state engineer’s office, said Thursday.

The Navajo Nation, in pursing its water rights, is not trying to corner the water market in the basin, said Navajo Council Delegate LoRenzo Bates, of Upper Fruitland, on Wednesday.

Dayish and Bates were responding to statements — in Tuesday’s Daily Times article “Attorney: Navajos trying to control water” — made by private attorney Gary Horner of Farmington.

Horner said he believed the Navajo Nation was pursuing more than 600,000 acre feet of water in the proposed settlement — more than double its need — in order to have excess water to sell to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and other Southwest cities suffering from the drought.

This would be done at the expense of the basin’s off-reservation farmers and ranchers who would be cut off from adequate water supplies, Horner said. They would then be forced to pay the Navajo Nation inflated prices for water, he said, because they would be competing with Phoenix and other cities for the water.

Dayish and Bates rejected Horner’s logic, saying the Navajo Nation had already compromised in the settlement to a 60 percent share of the basin’s water supply versus the 100 percent the tribe is entitled to as senior water right users on the San Juan River.

“It is very obvious that no one can look at the settlement document and feel they came away with 100 percent of what they thought they ought to have had,” Dayish said. “The amounts of water proposed in the draft settlement are actually significantly less than what the Navajo Nation would claim if the Navajo Nation was to litigate its claims.”

Further, the Navajo Nation would sit at the table with its off-reservation neighbors anytime a water shortage existed to develop a plan to get water to everyone, Bates said, adding water would stay in the basin and not be going to Phoenix and Los Angeles.

Bates did concede that 509,000 acre feet of water allocated in the settlement for the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project could be sold for industrial or municipal purposes once the settlement was passed by Congress.

Currently, under congressional mandate, NIIP water to the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry’s 110,000 acre farm south of Farmington can be used only for irrigation. The tribal farm uses 180,000 to 200,000 acre feet of water annually. Part of the settlement calls for the United States to finish NAPI which would then require more water.

“The settlement is an opportunity for the Navajo leaders and the non-Indian leaders in the basin to work together for the common good of all,” Dayish said. “It enables the state of New Mexico to reconcile its future water with the Navajo Nation in a manner that enables a secure water future for everyone in the basin.”

The real threat is if the settlement agreement is not reached, he added.

“If the settlement does not succeed, then through no fault of the Navajo Nation, all of the parties in the basin will be subjected to a highly contested and very litigious process,” Dayish said. “It will cost tens of millions of dollars and can turn community against community and neighbor against neighbor. In the end there will be no winners.”

The state engineer publicly released the original settlement draft Dec. 5. They are reviewing more than 300 pages of public comments made this spring. A new public draft has yet to be released.

“There’s no revised draft that’s been approved or agreed upon to or a negotiated redraft presented to anybody for consideration,” Whipple said.

Navajo Council Delegate Wallace Charley, of Shiprock, said however he received a confidential revised draft from Navajo water attorney Stanley Pollack and the Navajo Water Rights Commission. They are in the negotiations with the state engineer. Bates said he also received a copy.

The Council made a list of confidential recommendations it wanted to see mentioned in the negotiation process during its May 19-20 water rights workshop held in executive session.

Navajo Council Delegate Ervin Keeswood, of Hogback, made a motion during the Council’s special session May 21 to make specific confidential directives to Council Speaker Lawrence Morgan for the water right negotiations.

Keeswood’s motion violated the Council floor rules because he added the item to the agenda, Bates said. Morgan agreed but said Keeswood had added items from the floor in recent Council sessions and thereby had set a precedent. The Council then passed the motion 57-3 without any documentation, Bates added.

Jim Snyder: jims@daily-times.com