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Legislation drops<br>pipeline proposal

The controversial portion of proposed federal legislation that could have led to the construction of a Colorado River pipeline to the Hopi and Navajo reservations has been stricken from a bill sponsored by Arizona Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain.

The bill, S2743, was scheduled to be debated by the Senate on Tuesday of this week. The legislation was introduced to settle claims by the Zuni Indian Tribe over water rights in its religious lands in northeastern Arizona.

But the measure, approved Oct. 1 by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, also would have allowed the Fort McDowell Indian Community to lease Central Arizona Project water for a temporary water supply for the Black Mesa and Kayenta coal mines on the Hopi and Navajo Indian reservations.

A pipeline, estimated to cost about $100 million, would have transported Colorado River water to the two reservations. As a result, Peabody Energy would then stop pumping 1.3 million gallons annually from an underground aquifer to slurry coal from the Black Mesa mine to the Mohave Generating Plant in Laughlin, Nev.

The Hopi Tribe has been vocal about putting an end to pumping from the underground aquifer because it has reportedly had a negative impact on seeps and springs. At the same time, a pipeline would provide a stable water supply for Navajo and Hopi communities and a proposal for a Hopi-operated power plant has surfaced.

The proposal called for the pipeline’s pumping station to be constructed between Lake Mead and Lee’s Ferry. The Bureau of Reclamation was expected to release a detailed study on the pipeline’s specifics.

The new section quietly added to the bill in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs did not call for any notice or public hearings on the issue.

"This is an extraordinary invasion of Grand Canyon National Park which clears the way for tearing up the shoreline, building water treatment and pumping plants, and constructing a pipeline in one of the world’s greatest natural areas," said Rob Smith, Southwest Representative for the Sierra Club in Phoenix. "The Colorado River belongs in Grand Canyon National Park, not in a coal slurry pipeline."

Smith went on to say that the Zuni water rights bill had nothing to do with the pipeline project.

"The Grand Canyon water project has nothing to do with settling the Zuni’s water rights, and should be removed from this bill," Smith said before the offending section was later stricken. "There are other alternatives to solving the Hopi’s water problems which don’t involve sacrificing the Grand Canyon to the coal industry."

If a pipeline would ever be built, spurs could deliver water to non-reservation communities, including those located just south of Grand Canyon National Park. Environmental groups believe such a pipeline plan could lead to sprawl in remote areas.

The main section of the bill involves a dispute that arose from water-rights claims made by the Zuni tribe to its religious lands in northeastern Arizona — which Congress designated "the Zuni Heaven Reservation" in 1984.

For nearly a century prior to that, however, small non-Indian communities upstream from the reservation fully appropriated all the water available to a point where there were more would-be water users than water.

"This settlement respects the religious beliefs of the Zuni tribe, settles its water rights claims, and in exchange protects access to water for residents of rural communities upstream from the reservation," Kyl said. "I am hopeful that Congress will approve this legislation now that it has advanced out of a Senate committee."


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