Senators ask for pipeline promise
Legislators request details of water plan

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici want some assurances from the city of Gallup and the Navajo Nation that they will be able to meet their obligations if the Navajo Nation water rights settlement and Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project are approved by Congress.

Following last week's testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Bingaman, chairman of the committee, and Domenici, ranking Republican, had some tough questions for Navajo-Gallup steering committee Chairwoman Patricia Lundstrom and Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr.

"Are you confident the city of Gallup can afford the 25 percent cost share that is called for in this legislation if we are able to pass this bill?" Bingaman asked Lundstrom, who also serves as a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives and executive director of the Northwest New Mexico Council of Governments.

"I believe that the city stands behind the 25 percent cost share," she said.

The cost share is one of the provisions contained in Senate Bill 1171, known as The Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act.

The act would resolve the Navajo Nation's water rights claims in the San Juan River Basin in New Mexico and authorize the construction and rehabilitation of water infrastructure in Northwestern New Mexico.

"We've already started talk about innovative financing and I believe, Mr. Chairman and Sen. Domenici, that between innovative city financing and the State of New Mexico's Water Trust Fund and our Indian Water Rights Fund that we set up through the New Mexico Legislature, that we will be able to come up with that cost share," Lundstrom said.

MOU Problems
Bingaman told Shirley that one of his and Domenici's objectives from the beginning was to try to provide some type of sustainable water supply for the city of Gallup in addition to meeting the water needs of the Navajo people.

"I know there was recently something in the newspaper there in Gallup reporting that one of the committees of the Navajo Council had rejected a Memorandum of Understanding with Gallup and with the Jicarilla Nation that's related to this," Bingaman said. "Are we confident that we can work out any disagreements between the Navajo Nation and the Jicarillas and the city of Gallup so that we don't have problems if we're able to pass this legislation, in getting everyone's water needs addressed?" he asked Shirley.

"I'm very confident that we can work things out between the Navajo Nation, the city of Gallup and the Jicarilla Apache Nation," Shirley said. "I have two honorable legislators from the Navajo Nation Council, one sitting on the Budget & Finance Committee, Chairman LoRenzo Bates, he's here with me; and the Honorable Mr. George Arthur who is Chairman of the Resources Committee.

"These are the two gentlemen who are sitting on the Intergovernmental Relations Committee who have redrafted the MOU. This calls for our working together to get a water supply for the city of Gallup and I'm sure that working together, like we have been, we'll get there I'm very confident," the president said.

Bingaman said the committee appreciated his reassurance. "I would certainly hate for us to go through this effort and pass legislation and find that there's still a need out there that hasn't been adequately addressed. That would certainly not be ideal," he said.

Lundstrom said she has been in communication with the city of Gallup that it was her understanding that the Memorandum of Understanding is moving forward.

Domenici told Bingaman, "You hit the nail right on the head. It will serve very little for us to pass this and then find that the Gallup arrangement didn't take place."

Pipe dreams?
Domenici also expressed his concern to Shirley that the Navajo-Gallup pipeline, "the big one, will be there, but we won't have any construction to deliver it."

"This project and its dream was to put the big pipeline down so that where you have thousands of acres with no water, you would have major trunk lines. But that won't serve the Navajo people if there are not watering facilities, if there are not the 'little pipelines'" in place to hook onto the main laterals.

"I personally want to know, Mr. President, does the Navajo Nation plan to proceed with a plan to make available a delivery system so the Navajo people won't be hauling water from these big pipes, but rather, that the water will get delivered in the normal way, through little pipes like we do in all cities, with infrastructure. Is that going to happen?"

Shirley said that is the plan. "It wouldn't do my people any good to just have that big water line with no water going to the communities. So, that's the intention," he said.

Shirley did not elaborate on just how those lines tap into the main laterals, nor does the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement spell out how water would be conveyed to communities not already serviced by a water distribution system.

Domenici requested that the Navajo Nation submit to them its plan showing how this will be done. "I would like to see some evidence of what you're going to do and where you're going to get the money to provide water," he said.

"You don't have to provide it to every single acre, but somehow the Navajo Nation has to think through, where are you going to get the resources? Are you going to charge the people for water? I think we ought to know that.

"That's the big one, because the water is useless if that isn't done. I'm not critical. I just have been there, and I know you can wait and fight for 10 years over issues like this, and that's not what we want," he said.