S. 637 — Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Amendments Act of 2025

This section revises definitions in the Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act (i.e., title X of P.L. 111-11, which authorizes Bureau of Reclamation construction of rural water supply projects—including the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project—and settles water rights claims for the Navajo Nation, Jicarilla Apache Nation, and other entities in northwestern New Mexico) by (1) striking paragraph (29); (2) adding a definition of "Deferred Construction Fund" as the Navajo Nation's Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Deferred Construction Fund established under section 10602(i)(1)(A); (3) adding a definition of "Project Service Area" as the area encompassing 43 Navajo Nation chapters, the southwest portion of the Jicarilla Apache Reservation, and the City of Gallup, as illustrated in the final environmental impact statement; (4) adding a definition of "Settlement Trust Funds" to include the Navajo Nation Water Resources Development Trust Fund, Navajo Nation Operations, Maintenance, and Replacement Trust Fund, and Jicarilla Apache Nation Operations, Maintenance, and Replacement Trust Fund; (5) adding a definition of "Working Cost Estimate" as the Bureau of Reclamation's October 2022 document detailing project costs totaling $2,138,387,000 (at October 2022 prices); and (6) in two definitions, replacing references to the "Draft Environmental Impact Statement" (dated March 2007) with the "Final Environmental Impact Statement" (dated July 6, 2009).

This section revises the authorization for the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project (i.e., a Bureau of Reclamation project to deliver San Juan River water to Navajo Nation communities in New Mexico and Arizona and to the City of Gallup, New Mexico) by replacing references to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement with the Final Environmental Impact Statement (as refined in the Working Cost Estimate and subsequent National Environmental Policy Act documents); authorizing the Navajo Nation to expand the project service area to additional Nation communities in the Rio San Jose Basin (New Mexico) and Lupton (Arizona, Little Colorado River Basin), which Congress finds will increase service without exceeding authorized costs and will reduce unit operations and maintenance costs; specifying acquisition of water conveyance and storage facilities associated with the San Juan Generating Station (a coal-fired power plant near Waterflow, New Mexico); and authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to take specified Nation fee lands, Bureau of Land Management public domain lands, and San Juan Generating Station lands into trust for the Navajo Nation upon satisfaction of conditions in the project's settlement agreement (thus making those lands part of the Navajo Reservation, subject to valid existing rights).

This section amends section 10701(e) of the Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act (PL 111-11) by (1) requiring the United States to complete all deposits into the Navajo Nation Water Resources Development Trust Fund by December 31, 2019 (revised clause (vii) of paragraph (1)(A)); (2) extending a deadline to December 31, 2032 (from 2019) in clause (viii); (3) extending a project deadline to 2029 (from 2024) in clause (ix); (4) adding clause (x) requiring deposits into the Deferred Construction Fund by December 31, 2029, in accordance with section 10602(i)(3), and deeming the Secretary to have met the project deadline upon deposit even if certain facilities are not yet constructed; and (5) replacing references to the “Trust Fund” with “Settlement Trust Funds” in paragraph (2)(B). The section further replaces section 10702 with new provisions establishing in the Treasury (1) the Navajo Nation Water Resources Development Trust Fund, consisting of $50 million in authorized appropriations ($6 million annually for FY2010–2014 and $4 million annually for FY2015–2019), plus investment earnings, to be invested beginning October 1, 2019, and available after December 31, 2019, and entry of specified court decrees in the stream adjudication for the Navajo Nation to investigate, construct, operate, maintain, or replace water facilities or implement water conservation measures; and (2) the Navajo Nation Operations, Maintenance, and Replacement Trust Fund, consisting of $250 million in authorized appropriations, plus investment earnings, available after the Nation assumes specified operation, maintenance, and replacement cost responsibilities for project O&M costs allocable to the Nation. (As background, these trust funds support implementation of the Navajo Nation's settled water rights under the Act, which authorizes the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project to deliver Central Arizona Project water to the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico.)

This section amends section 10602(h) of the Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act (P.L. 111-11)—which authorizes the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project to deliver San Juan River water to Navajo and non-Navajo users in northwestern New Mexico—by inserting a new paragraph (2) to authorize the Navajo Nation to convey up to 2,000 acre-feet per year of non-Project water to its communities in Utah through Project and non-Project infrastructure, subject to conditions that include (1) accounting deliveries to the New Mexico state line as part of the Navajo-Utah water rights and against Utah's apportionment under the Compact for depletion accounting under the Navajo/Utah Settlement Agreement; (2) no use of Project funds or increased operation, maintenance, and replacement costs to Project participants for additional infrastructure; (3) no U.S. responsibility or funding for non-Project water or infrastructure except as authorized under section 1102 of P.L. 116-260, section 7 of the Act of August 5, 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2004a, authorizing sanitation facilities including water supplies for Indians), and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.); (4) no prejudicial delay to the Project; and (5) compliance with the Navajo/Utah Settlement Agreement, Utah issuance of a decreed water right, no additional Utah financial obligations, and a Nation-Utah implementation agreement on accounting. It clarifies that New Mexico has no responsibility for such water or funding and makes conforming changes to paragraph numbering and cross-references.