NM water-rights settlements clear House 'with money attached'

After 44 years, the effort to settle water-rights claims of four pueblos and their neighbors in the Pojoaque River Basin is almost over. All that's needed now at the federal level is President Barack Obama's signature. The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a seminal piece of legislation that resolves American Indian trust account issues, black farmers' claims and Indian water-rights claims, including the Pojoaque Valley litigation known as the Aamodt case. The U.S. Senate approved the bill earlier in November. The House approved the measure Tuesday in a 256-152 vote. Also in the bill is settlement of Taos Pueblo water-rights claims in what's known as the Abeyta case and funding for a Navajo-Gallup pipeline that is part of a Navajo water-rights settlement in New Mexico. The bill provides $81.1 million for the Aamodt agreement, which includes construction of a new Rio Grande diversion and a pipeline to deliver imported water to the Pojoaque Basin. The bill also provides $66 million for the Taos Pueblo settlement. It authorizes a total of $92 million in future years for Aamodt and $58 million for Abeyta. Aamodt settles water-rights claims of Pojoaque, Tesuque, San Ildefonso and Nambé pueblos, which have the oldest water rights in the basin north of Santa Fe...more