Bill S.3648, 85th Congress 2nd Session, In the Senate of the United States

IN THE SENATE OF TIIE UNI'fED STATES

.AI'RlL 21, 1958

Mr. ANDERSON (for himself and Mr. ClIAVEz) introduced the following bill; which was 1·ead twice and teferred to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs

A BILL

To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the Navajo Indian irrigation project and the initjaJ stage of the San Juan-Chama project as participating ]}rojects of the Colorado River storage project, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-2 tives of the United Stat.es

of

America in Congress assembled, 3 That the Congress hereby approYes as pa1ticipating projects 4 of the Colorado River storage project the Navajo Indian

5 irrigation project as described in the Bureau of Indian Af-6 fairs report entitled "Navajo Project, New Mexico Feasibility 7 Report, January 1955", and as modified by the Bureau of 8 Indian Affairs Supplemental Report entitled "Navajo

I ,.)

2

1 ect, New Mexico Supplemental Report, 1957, to Feasibility 2 Report, January 1955", and the San Juan-Chama project 3 as described

in

the Bureau of Reclamation report entitled 4 ''San Juan-Chama Project, Colorado-New Mexico, Novem-5 ber, 1955", such project plans and reports having been 6 prepared and submitted as required under the provisions of 7 the Act of April 11, 1956 (70 Stat. 105).

8 SEC. 2. Pursuant to the provisions of the Act of April 9 11, 1956 (70 Stat. 105), the Secretary of the Interior is 10 authorized to construct the Navajo Indian irrigation project 11 to include a net area of one hundred and ten thousand six

12 hundred and thirty acres of land with an average annual 13 diversion requirement of five hundred and eight thousand 14 acre-feet of water, the repayment of the costs of construction 15 thereof to be in accordance with the provisions of said· Act 16 of April 11, 1956 (70 Stat. 105), including, but ri:ot limited 17 to, section 4 ( d) thereof.

18 SEC. 3. (a) In order to provide for the most economical 19 development of the Navajo Indian irrigation project, the 20 Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed 21 to declare by publication in the Federal Register that the 22 United States of America holds in trust for the Navajo Tribe 23 of Indians any legal subdivisions or unsurveyed tracts of

24 federally owned land outside the present boundary of the 25 Navajo Indian Reservation in New Mexico in townships 28

1 and 2H no1th. rfl1l!!P~ 10 and 11 west. and town~hips 27 2 and 28 north, rang<'I; 12 and 1:1 west, New Mexico principal 3 meridian, . m,c·<'ptihle to irrig.ttion a:- part of the Navajo ·! T ncliun inigation projed or neec .. sary for location of any of 5 the works or l'fma]q of sn<'h project: P,mvided,

however,

That

6 no such lega 1 sul>division or nnsnrveyed I ract shall bo so 7 declared to be held in tmst by the United States for the 8

~a,ajo

Tribe until the Navajo Tribe shall have paid the

9 United States the full appmise1l value thereof:

And provided

10 further, Thnt iu making n1>prnis:1ls of ~uch lnndi- the Secrc-11 tary of the Interior sha11 cou~ider their Yalucs a~ of the date

12 of approval of thi' .A.ct, excluding therefrom the value of 13 minerals suhjecL to leai-;ing under tho Act of Febniary 25, 14 1920, as amended (30 U. S. C. 181-286), and such

leas-15 able minerals ,hall not be held in trust for the

X

avajo T1ibe

16 nnd shnll continue to be i-uhject to leac;.ing tmdcr the Act 17 of February 2n, H)20, as amended, after the lands

contain-18 ing them lrnvc heen declared to Le held in t111st by the

19 United States for the Navajo 'l'ribe.

20 (b) The NaYajo Tribe i~ hereby authorized to convey 21 to the United States, and thl' Hecrctnr.v of the I11teiior is 22 herchy directed to n<·cept. on lwhnlf of the United Rtate~, title 23 to any land or iutere,t in larnl within the above-described 24 town~hips 1wquired in fee simple by the NnYajo TribC', and 25 nftcr snch ronveyauce ~nid land or iutere..,t in lnnd shall l)e

4

1 held in tiust by the U nitecl States for the Navajo Tribe as a

2 part of the Navajo Indian irrigation project.

3 ( c} 'I.1he Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized

4 and directed to acquire by pm·chase, exchange,

or

condemna

-5 tion any other land

or

interest in land withiu the tov.rnships

6 above described susceptible to irrigation as part of the Navajo

7 Indian irrigation project or necessary for location of any of

8 the works or canals of such project. After such acquisition,

9 said lands or interest in lands shall be held by the United

10 States in t1ust for the Na ,·ajo Tribe of Indians and the price

11 of such lands or interest in lands or of the land given in

12 exchange therefor by the United States :shall ht> charged to

13 funds of tl1e Navajo '1'1 ibe of Indians on deposit in the

14

Treasury of the United Stntes. ' ,t ~ ;fJ jl'• I '1 15

-, • , .. I SEC. 4. In developing the Navajo lndiau irrigation

16

project, the Secretary is auth01·ized to provide capacity for

17

municipal and industrial water supplies or niiscellaneous

-18

purposes over and above the diversion re<1uireme11ts for

19

irrigation stated in scctiou 2 of this Act. But such

addi-20 tional capacity shall not be construed a.nd no appropriation

21

of funds for such construction shall be made unless, prior

22

thernto, contracts have heen executed

vdiich,

in the

jndg-23

ment of the Secretary, proYide satisfactory ns.~unmce of

24

repayment of all costs proper]y allocated to the purposes

25

1 ~EC. 5. The N a.vajo J ndian irrigMion project sfo11l be

2 C'onstrncted, operated, and maintained subject to the pro-3 vis.ion~ of section 4 of the Act of April 11, 1956 (43

r.

S.

C.

4 620c) , to the amc extent a if surh project were authorized 5 hy sertion 1 of . aid ~~ct ( 43 -C. S. C. 620) . Payment of 6 operation uud maintenance ('hargcs of the irrigation feattll'es

7 of the K avajo Indian inigation project shall be in

accord-s

nnce v.i.th the provi ion. of the Act of .. \_ugnst 7, 1946 ( 60 9 Stat. 867) : Prol'ided, That the Secretary of the Interior in 10 his direction rnay tran for to the Na Yajo Tribe of lndians 11 the <'are, operation, and maintenance of al] or any part of

12 the K avajo Indian irrigation project 'i\'Orks, subject to sueh

13 rules and reguhl.tions els he may pre~cribe, and. in such eYeut,

14 the Secretary may tran fer to the N iwajo Tribe title to 15 movable property necessary to the operation mid maintc-16 nance of projed works.

17 SEC. G. Pursuaut to the provisiom; of the A et of April

18 l 1, J 956 (70 Htut. 105), the Secretary of the Interior is

J 9 authorize<l to construct, operate, a.nd maintain an initial stage

20 of the Snu Jnan-Chanrn project, in accordance with the

21

Burerm

of Reclamation report entitled "Supplemental

Re-22 port, San

,Tuan-Chama

Project,

Co

]

orado-N<)w

Mexico, May

23 L957". Haid initial ~tage to lrnxe

m1

aYcrage annual diversion ,, ,o

24 of one hundred and ten thousand acre-feet of water.

6

1 the use for any purpose, inclnding uses under the N nvajo 2 Indian irrigation project and the initial stage of the Sa.n 3 .T11an-Chitnrn project aut.horizecl hy 8ections 2 and 6 of this J Act of water stored in ~avajo Reservoir or of any other 5 waters of the Ran .Tmm RiYer and its tributaries originating 6 ahove X avajo Darn to the H!-P. of which the

r

nited States is

7 entitled. except under contract satisfactory to the Secretary 8 of the Interior and conformjng to the provisions of this Act. 9 Any such contract shall make provi<-ion for a sharing of the 10 run-off available from the San Juan River and its tribu-11 ta.ries above Navajo Dam in any year in which the Secretary 12 anticipat~s a shortage taking into account both the prospec-13 tive run-off and the wate1· in storage, such sharing to be in 14 the same proportion as the normal diversion requirement 15 under said contract bears to the sum of the normal diver-16 sion requirements at SJ-lid time of ~hortage under aJl contracts 17 that have been made hereunder. The Secretary shall not 18 enter into contracts beyond a total amount of water that, 19 in his judgment, in the event of shortage

will

result in a.

20 reasonable amount being available for the diversion require-21 ments for the Navajo Indian irrigation project and the in-22 itial stage of the San

J

uau-Ohama project as spcdficd in

23 sections 2 and 6 of this Act.

24 (b) In the event contracts aTe entered into for delivery 25 from storage in N a.vajo Reservoir of water not covered by

1 subsection (a) of lhi:s section, such contracts shall be

sub-2 ject to the same provision for sharing of available water 3 supply in the event of shortage as in the case of contracts

re-4 quired to be made pursuant to subparagraph (a) of this

5 section.

6 SEC. 8. Section 12 of the Act of April 11, 1956, 70

7 Stat. 105, shall not apply to the works authorized by this

s

Act. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated out

9 of any moneys

_

in

the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, 10 such funds as may be required to carry out the purposes of 11 this A.ct, but not to exceed $208,000,000.