11.2.16.010 Findings

(a) The Pueblo is a party in the federal water adjudication State v. Aamodt, U.S. District Court of New Mexico No. 66CV6639;

(b) In 2006, after thirty-five years of litigation, and five years of negotiations, the Pueblo, the other three Pueblos, and other parties involved in the Aamodt case executed a Settlement Agreement signed March 14, 2013 to settle this water rights adjudication;

(c) The Pueblo de San Ildefonso's water rights in the Pojoaque River Basin have been adjudicated in the Aamodt case, a Partial Final Decree quantifying those rights has been entered, with the Court decree stating;

(1) "the Pueblo de San Ildefonso has the Pueblo first priority right to consumptively use the surface and groundwater of the Pojoaque Basin in an amount not to exceed 1,246 acre feet per year (AFY) for agriculture, community, domestic, livestock, commercial or industrial purposes on this Pueblo's lands. The priority of this right is time immemorial. Pursuant to the settlement agreement, 288 AFY of this right are designated as Existing Basin Use Rights and 958 AFY are designated as Future Basin Use Rights

(2) the Pueblo de San Ildefonso has the Reserved Right under federal law for the San Ildefonso Eastern Reservation to consumptively use the waters of the Pojoaque Basin for grazing purposes on the Reservation in an amount not exceed 4.82 AFY. The priority of this right is 1939."

(d) The Pueblo's first priority water rights shall be administered consistent with the terms of the Settlement Agreement entered into by the Pueblo along with seven other governments on March 14, 2013;

(e) The federal court order dated April 13, 1984 stated the Pueblos "…will be allowed to challenge priorities [for non-Indians] equal to or senior to the Pueblos' priorities at a later date after the Pueblos' priorities are determined.";

(f) The court order dated August 17, 1992 stated "…the Pueblos will have standing in the inter se proceeding any time their water right is affected, which is to say, any time they risk a diminution in their water right or a change in priority.";

(g) The court order entered September 9, 2016 stated "In addition to the extent consistent with the prior orders of the court and the Settlement Agreement, the Pueblos and the United States may file objections to non-Pueblo surface water priorities…. No later than the date for filing inter se objections, the Pueblos and the United States shall identify which, if any, of the inter se objections previously filed by the Pueblos in 1983 they intend to pursue" p. 6, section B.7;

(h) A general stream adjudication in New Mexico, such as the Aamodt case, requires an opportunity for challenges by one water right holder against another water right holder ("inter se challenge") in certain circumstances where the objector can show how its water rights "will be injured or harmed by the determination of the water right(s) objected to in a legally cognizable way." 2016 Order at page 6, paragraph C.1.;

(i) Prior orders of the court indicate, the Pueblo lacks a legally cognizable basis for objecting to all non-Indian water rights, since they have junior priority to the Pueblos; and

(j) In 1983 the Pueblos filed Inter-Se challenges to over 600 sub-file judgments entered on non-Pueblo water rights served by surface water irrigation. The court halted consideration of those challenges, stating that the Pueblos could not challenge rights with priority junior to the Pueblos;

(k) The court has determined in the Decree of Pueblo Water Rights that the Pueblo water rights in the Pojoaque Basin are senior to all non-Indian water rights; "prior orders of the court" show the Pueblo water rights may be enforced against junior non-Indian water rights by means of a priority call, rather than through inter se challenges;

(l) Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act of 2010 requires entry of a Final Decree of all water rights in the Aamodt case no later than September, 2017;

(m) Inter Se challenges filed at this time could jeopardize the ability of the court to enter a final decree in the Aamodt case within the time limit imposed by Congress;

(n) The Pueblo's water rights team has considered this issue and recommends that the Tribal Council enact this resolution.