Council eyes legal action over NIIP

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation Council has been asked to consider taking legal action against the federal government to get it to follow through on completion of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project.

NIIP was enacted by Congress in 1962 under former President John F. Kennedy’s administration and was designed to provide a water delivery system from Navajo Dam reservoir to irrigate 110,630 acres of Navajo land. The statute includes an annual diversion right of 508,000 acre feet of water for irrigation.

“That was to trade water into the Rio Grande,” said Tsosie Lewis, NAPI general manager. The San Juan Chama Diversion project was completed in the early 1970s, “so the people in the Rio Grande are enjoying what the Navajo Nation gave up in exchange for 110,640 acres.”

In 1970, the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, a high-tech farming enterprise, was created by Council to provide employment opportunities for the Navajo people. NAPI began as a model high-tech farming operation, using automated-control center pivot systems and state-of-the-art drop nozzle sprinkler heads to efficiently manage its water resources.
But according to Lewis, only 75,000 acres of the farm project have been completed to date and the once model project is now aging and needs up to $40 million just to provide new center pivots because the old ones are collapsing.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, the principal party charged with building out NIIP, hired the Bureau of Reclamation to build the infrastructure — the canal system, pumping plants, and delivery units, Tsosie said. “There were particular guidelines for NIIP and a particular design that the Bureau of Reclamation put together.”

In 2001, Neil McCaleb, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, wrote a letter to then-Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye, asking that the agency be allowed to keep half the money that year and use it somewhere else.
“With the reluctancy of the Navajo Nation government, all parties agreed that the funding would be halved only one time. We were being funded at $24 million, and then it went down to $12 million. That one time never came back to full funding. In 2009, the appropriation for NIIP is only $6 million,” Tsosie said.

“The Bureau of Indian Affairs should be sitting up here explaining to you why NIIP has not been finished. They have really taken a back seat to full funding, and they have really not been straightforward to us,” he said. As a result, NAPI is working on a loan from Wells Fargo Bank to fund repairs.
“Sometimes we forget that NAPI belongs to the Navajo Nation. As citizens, we all have ownership of this whole thing,” Tsosie said.

Delegate Amos Johnson said, “It really isn’t fair for the Navajo Nation to make that sacrifice to get water into the Rio Grande Valley. ... I believe the board’s recommendation to sue the Bureau or whoever, is appropriate. It’s been dragging on for so long.”

George Arthur, chairman of the Resources Committee, said NIIP was discussed during talks on the New Mexico portion of the San Juan River Water Rights Settlement, and Council took the water portion of NIIP development out of the settlement.

Council and the Navajo leadership need to determine how to proceed with addressing the lack of funding and lack of completion of the project, he said. “Right now, we are being asked to file a lawsuit. I think we have to analyze this to some extent because we do have a pending legislation on the water rights settlement.

“We don’t know what the makeup of the leadership is going to be in the next few months and we need to make certain that all of our cards are in order and that the representatives at the congressional level are in alliance with our desires.”
Delegate Raymond Maxx made a directive for Navajo Department of Justice to look into the matter. Danny Simpson and Johnny Naize agreed, but added that Economic Development and the Intergovernmental Relations committees, the President’s Office, Water Rights Commission and others need to be included, and should report back to council.

“Basically it goes back to what the federal government always does to us — not fulfilling its obligation,” Simpson said. “We’re being pushed aside again.”

*Ervin Keeswood said the discussion on NIIP is long overdue. “The Navajo Nation has really been treated unjustly throughout the years. It was supposed to be 10 years for both projects to be completed — the Chama Diversion and NIIP.

“The Chama was completed in those 10 years, and our brothers and sisters of the Caucasian persuasion are enjoying our Navajo water in Albuquerque while our people are doing without.”

Budget and Finance Committee Chairman LoRenzo Bates cautioned delegates. “We have a water settlement going through right now, and you heard from Mr. Lewis that they’re only farming a certain number of acres.

“With all the excuses that the federal government is putting forth, they could also use that as an excuse when the water settlement comes through. ‘You have a farm and you’re not farming the total available acreage, so we’re going to take some of that water back.’ So it does have some possible consequences.”

Lawrence Platero said there has been talk through the years about Nation signing a new MOA. “I think that’s a bad thing to do, to sign into a new MOA when they can’t even be in compliance with the first MOA. I urge your support in trying to get the lawsuit developed and let’s try to get completion of the project.”