I AM RESPONDING to Mike Sullivan’s misinformed op-ed titled “Navajo Water Deal Leaves Us High and Dry.” Sullivan apparently has not read the Navajo Water Rights Settlement Agreement.
Had he done so, he would know that the settlement expressly forbids the Navajo Nation from transferring water rights outside of New Mexico without the consent of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission.
Sullivan should also know that the settlement agreement did not “give” the Navajo Nation any water rights. Under well-established federal law, the nation could have water rights far in excess of the amounts recognized in the settlement. As the name implies, the “settlement” represents a compromise of the Navajo Nation’s claims. It saves the expense of protracted litigation — the outcome of which is far from certain — and it allows federal funding of the Navajo-Gallup pipeline.
Without the settlement, the Navajo Nation and the federal government might establish a right to take a much larger share of the river through no-holds-barred litigation.
In that event, it would not need to ask New Mexico’s permission to transfer water rights outside this state, or for anything else. I doubt that Sullivan would like this result any better than the settlement.
R. BRUCE FREDERICK
New Mexico Environmental Law Center
Santa Fe
