Navajos, N.M., Feds Reach Proposed Water Settlement

A proposed settlement worked out by the Navajo Nation, New Mexico and the federal government holds promise of resolving a 30-year water rights conflict in northwestern New Mexico. NM, Congress and the Navajo tribal government must officially approve the agreement.

The Navajo Tribe for its part agreed to accept 322,000 acre feet annually from the San Juan River and guaranteed that no additional future claims will be filed. In return, the tribe would receive about $900 million for public works projects. This money would be used to complete an irrigation project as well as pay for a pipeline to supply communities on the eastern side of the reservation with drinking water.

The proposed settlement allots the amount of water the tribe can apply to various uses. These include farming projects and municipal uses, the Animas-La Plata diversion project, the Navajo reservoir as well as what can be supplied to non-Indian farmers and cities in San Juan County. Available supplies were sufficient for the settlement, with no new water sources tapped.

The settlement is dependent on Congressional approval of $896 million for water projects, with the planned Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project pipeline the most expensive. This project would pump water directly from the San Juan River, below the confluence of the La Plata and San Juan rivers, and pipe it to Gallup, New Mexico, and to areas within the Navajo reservation, both in New Mexico and Arizona.

In an another Navajo water right development, this time a court case with possibly far-reaching implications to Arizona, the Navajo Tribe has filed suit against the federal government in an effort to obtain recognition of tribal claims to Colorado River water.

Report: Nation’s Dams in Dire Straits

Dire warnings about the state of the nations’s infrastructure continue, with a recent report issued by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials that the condition of the nation’s dams warrant immediate attention.

The ASDSO report reflects findings of a September American Society of Civil Engineer’s report on the nation’s infrastructure. That report judged dams in worse shape than they were two years ago when ASCE assigned them a “D” in its “2001 Report Card for America.”

For its report ASDSO compiled state and national estimates of the cost of dam rehabilitation. Its task committee concluded that the cost of upgrading or repairing the nation’s non-federal dams would exceed $36 billion. ASDSO plans to ask Congress in the coming year to establish a national dam financing solutions program.

The report estimates that of this amount about $10.1 billion is needed for dams classified as “high-hazard-potential.” States currently regulate more than 10,000 of these structures, and the number is increasing. In 2001, Arizona regulated 88 “high-hazard-potential” dams, a rather significant increase from the 72 the state regulated in 1998.

Arizona’s cost to rehabilitate these dams is estimated to be about $95 million. The state has a Dam Repair Fund but it lacks sufficient resources to conduct the needed repairs.

The “high-hazard-potential” classification does not mean that the dams are hazardous, with a high possibility of failure, but instead that if they did fail they would likely pose a high hazard to life and property.

Also contributing to the concern about the condition of dams is the role they play in flood control. Flood control has gained increased prominence lately, with increasingly more development occurring in historic floodplain areas protected by dams. Their deterioration therefore poses a greater threat to life and property.
Dams, like water utilities, come in all sizes, with many of the dams in the United States and Arizona privately owned, and many are very small. About 50 percent of the nation’s dams are privately owned, often by owners without the financial resources to maintain, repair and upgrade them.

CA Urged to Try a Water Conservation Life Style;
Las Vegas Tries Conservation

Arizona may have something to learn about saving water from two of its neighboring states: California and Nevada. The California news is that water conservation may trump reservoir building for obtaining new water supplies. The news from Southern Nevada is that odds don=t necessarily favor water conservation when drought pinches.

Report: Conservation Answer to California Water Shortages

Water use in California cities and what can be done to better conserve water is the subject of a recently published report. Three years in the making, the report is the first comprehensive, in-depth review of water use in urban areas of California, and its results are relevant to Arizona.

In fact, Val Little, director of Water CASA, a consortium of Southern Arizona water providers sharing conservation resources, says Arizona needn’t do a similar study since, “There is no need to reinvent the wheel.”

The study emphasizes that any future search for new water sources should begin with water conservation, the cheapest strategy for increasing water supplies. Called “Waste Not, Want Not,” the report concludes that more than building a new reservoir, the state would be better off to encourage citizens to more efficiently manage their household’s water use, by installing more efficient bathroom fixtures, sprinklers, washing machines and other appliances.


According to the study the payoff would be that California cities could save about one-third of the water they presently consume or in other words enough water for about 4 million households.

The study identified toilets as the number one urban water waster, with about 7.3 million six-gallon toilets still in use in California despite programs urging their replacement with 1.6-gallon models. The result: toilets consume about 734,000 acre feet of water each year, about one-tenth of all urban supplies.

The report includes water-saving figures achievable if various conservation strategies were adopted. For example, replacing full-flow toilets would result in a 420,000 acre feet savings each year, sufficient supplies for 840,000 homes. Fixing indoor plumbing leaks would annually save 230,000 acre feet. If a more efficient outdoor water systems were installed, another 360,000 acre feet could be captured.

The report was prepared by the Pacific Institute, a water think tank based in Oakland. Support for its work included $70,000 in state funding and an additional $130,000 in foundation contributions.

Some voiced criticism of the report claiming the Institute had a bias toward conservation and therefore slighted any evidence justifying the building of new reservoirs. Findings of the report are to be included in a new California water plan scheduled for completion by the end of the year.

The savings indicated in the report are over and above water savings already achieved in the state through effective water conservation programs. For example, the population of Los Angeles has increased by 700,000 people in the last two decades yet its water demand has remained constant due to improve efficiency.

Val Little says, “I think everyone in Arizona should read the report in its entirety with an eye toward its usefulness here as well.”

A copy of the report is available at www.pacinst.org

Las Vegas Water Users Evade “Drought Watch”

Southern Nevada Water Authority officials were surprised and dismayed to find that water consumption during October was 0.5 percent more than in October 2002, despite the enactment of water saving, drought-fighting measures.

September water use seemed to bode well when customers of the water authority’s seven member agencies cut their actual usage by 11.1 percent. Then came an exceptionally dry, hot October, and water usage spiked. The National Weather Service reported that no rain fell in the area during the month.

The figures are especially disheartening since they are the first measures of residential and commercial water consumption since the summer declaration of a “drought watch.”

Water users circumvented the intent of some of the water saving measures. For example, some water users watered their vegetation for longer periods of time when restricted to watering only three times a week. Officials are now considering adopting time limits on the watering of grass, trees, and shrubs.

With the Southern Nevada Water Authority board voting unanimously to shift the Las Vegas region from “drought watch” to “drought alert,” more restrictive drought mitigation measures will be set for the beginning of the year. These will include restricting lawn and turf installation, prohibit using commercial and domestic misting devices and ban car washing at houses and apartment complexes.

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