ANNOUNCEMENT TO TAOS PUEBLO MEMBERS FROM GOVERNOR JAMES LUJAN SR. AND WAR CHIEF ROBERT ESPINOSA, NELSON J. CORDOVA AND GILBERT SUAZO, SR. AND THE WATER RIGHTS TASK FORCE ON THE TAOS PUEBLO WATER SETTLEMENT March 31, 2006 Dear Taos Pueblo Members: We are very pleased to announce that Taos Pueblo and the non-Indian parties (the State of New Mexico, Town of Taos, El Prado Water and Sanitation District, Taos Valley Acequia Association and the Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association) have completed the Taos Pueblo Draft Settlement Agreement (“DSA”). The next step is to disclose the DSA to tribal members and the general public. That disclosure process begins today—March 31, 2006—with a joint press release and the posting of the press release and DSA on the State Engineer and Taos Pueblo websites. On February 21, 2006, the Tribal Council authorized the Pueblo’s water rights negotiation team, by resolution (TPTC-2006-2), to proceed with the finalization of the local DSA and to proceed with the public disclosure process; thus, the DSA is being released with their authorization. Please note that while all parties have now authorized the public disclosure of the local DSA, none have yet formally approved it. The schedule of events for the Public Disclosure outlined below. That schedule includes public meetings in Town and at the Pueblo. However, because of our cultural activities, the Pueblo meeting will not be held until April 20, 2006. The notification and informing of the public is an important component of the settlement process. The water users in the valley, including tribal members, who will be affected by the settlement, need to be informed of the various agreements contained in the DSA, and congressional action would likely not take place without the parties going through this process. The Tribal Council will not take formal action for approval of the DSA until the conclusion of the public disclosure process. During the Public Disclosure period the DSA will be available for review at the Governor’s and War Chief’s Offices, Water Rights Office, and other tribal offices. As noted previously, the entire agreement is also available on the State Engineer’s website. Mr. Cordova, Mr. Suazo, and our legal counsel will be available to answer questions you may have about the DSA during the disclosure period. Public Disclosure Schedule: March 30, 2006 Tribal Council notification on the completion of local negotiations;
March 31, 2006
Posting of Draft Settlement Agreement on the State Engineer’s website and on the Pueblo’s site;
April 4, 2006 Briefing of news media on the agreement by the local parties April 12, 2006 April 19, 2006 April 20, 2006 May 5, 2006 Community meeting in Town (7:00-9:00 p.m., Taos Convention Center) Community meeting in Town (7:00-9:00 p.m., Taos Convention Center) Community meeting at Taos Pueblo (7:00-9:00 p.m., TBA) Tentatively scheduled Tribal Council meeting to review public disclosure results and consider final approval of the DSA
The agreement reached at the table by the local parties on the Taos Pueblo Water Settlement is a momentous achievement. An enormous amount of time and effort has been expended by all the parties to get to this point. After the Public Disclosure process, there is still more hard work ahead for negotiations with Administration and Congressional officials. As we move on to the Washington phase of our work, we will look to our elected officials, particularly Senators Domenici and Bingaman, to get our agreement through Congress in the form that the local parties have already agreed to. Without agreement at the local level, negotiations at the Washington, D.C. level would not have been possible. Below are quotes expressing the significance of achieving this milestone: “This is a good day, and this is a fair settlement. When it’s completed it will resolve the Pueblo’s water rights claims as well as longstanding water sharing disputes between Pueblo and non-Indian irrigators, and it will provide the basic rules for groundwater production in the valley without injuring surface water supplies or overburdening the aquifer.” – Governor James Lujan, Sr. “Taos Pueblo has long been vigilant in its management and protection of the waters that flow from its lands, and under this agreement, we will continue to manage our resources to protect our water resources, particularly the Blue Lake area and the headwaters of the Rio Pueblo de Taos and the Rio Lucero.” – War Chief Robert Espinosa “This is a comprehensive agreement. It not only deals with allocations of water but also basic agreements on the rules by which we will all use our water so that we avoid injury to each other and to this valley.” - Nelson Cordova, Taos Pueblo Water Rights Coordinator
“The long and hard work of the Pueblo and its neighbors on this agreement has laid a foundation upon which we can all build a relationship for the future—one that is based on mutual trust, respect and cooperation, something that has been missing historically.” – Nelson Cordova, Water Rights Coordinator. “Tuah-Tah (Taos Pueblo) has been in this valley and using its waters since time immemorial. When those who are now our neighbors came, there was a sharing of water resources and, invariably, disputes arose that have continued to this day. With this settlement, we hope to put those disputes to rest and to use our agreement to work together to protect this precious resource.” Gil Suazo, Taos Pueblo Water Resource Specialist “It took us almost seventy years to get Blue Lake back, and the Pueblo views its work on this settlement as equally important. The Abeyta negotiation might not have been as long, but the issues have seemed at times to be just as insurmountable and, in a sense, technically even more complicated. I am thankful that we have reached this important milestone.” – Gil Suazo, Taos Pueblo Water Resource Specialist “This is an historic milestone. There’s still quite a bit of work ahead of us, but we look forward to it. The Washington process and bureaucracy will be difficult, particularly in view of demands on the federal budget, but the parties are committed to continuing our cooperative work until we have achieved a positive outcome.” – Stephen Greetham, Nordhaus Law Firm, Taos Pueblo attorney “It was not easy getting here, but this is a workable agreement that all parties can accept as fair. I admire the Pueblo’s and the other parties’ persistence in negotiating a fair settlement.” – Les Taylor, Nordhaus Law Firm, Taos Pueblo attorney Nelson J. Cordova and Gilbert Suazo Sr. who serve as the Pueblo's spokesmen in the negotiations both agree that, "the perseverance and patience of the Taos Pueblo Tribal Council and its Water Task Force on finding a resolution to the water adjudication has been as important as it was for the Blue Lake issue." If you have any questions about the status of the water negotiations or about any aspect of the public disclosure process outlined here, please contact the Taos Pueblo Governor’s Office.