11.2.27.030 Findings

The Council hereby declares that:

(a) The Pueblo de San Ildefonso ("Pueblo") is a party in the federal water adjudication case of State v. Aamodt, U.S. District Court of New Mexico, No. 66CV6639, and in 2010, the United States enacted the Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act, as part of the Claims Resolution Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 11-291, Title VI, §§ 601-626, 124 Stat. 3064, 3134-56 (2010), which was signed into law by the President on December 8, 2010 ("Settlement Act" or "Act"); and

(b) The Settlement Act requires the Secretary, acting through the Bureau of Reclamation to plan, design and construct a regional water system to divert and distribute water to four Pueblos and to Santa Fe County; and

(c) Section 611(c) of the Act required execution of a Cost-Sharing and System Integration Agreement ("CSSI Agreement") to establish, among other things, the federal and non-federal costs of constructing the RWS; and

(d) The Parties entered into a CSSI Agreement on August 27, 2009, which was then amended by the Parties on March 14, 2013 to conform to the Act; and

(e) It has been determined that the current total cost to design and construct the RWS exceeds the amount authorized in the Act and related cost-sharing agreements; and

(f) Section 611(g)(1) of the Act provides that the Secretary shall initiate negotiations among the parties to address the funding shortfall and related matters; and

(g) The Pueblos of Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso and Tesuque, the County of Santa Fe, the City of Santa Fe, the State of New Mexico and the United States of America negotiated an agreement ("611(g) Agreement") that addresses the funding authorization shortfall, cost-sharing among the State, County and the United States, cost-saving changes to the design of the RWS, limited construction, and related matters; and

(h) The 611(g) Agreement was signed on September 17, 2019 and requires that the CSSI Agreement and the State and County funding agreements be amended within 120 days of the execution of the 611(g) Agreement to conform to the terms of the 611(g) Agreement; and

(i) The Council, having reviewed a form of the Amended Cost-Sharing and System Integration Agreement finds authorization of the Amended Cost-Sharing and System Integration Agreement is in the best interest of this Pueblo.