The "Indian water rights settlement fund" is created in the state treasury to facilitate the implementation of the state's portion of Indian water rights settlements. The fund consists of appropriations, gifts, grants, donations, income from investment of the fund and money otherwise accruing to the fund. Money in the fund shall not revert to any other fund at the end of a fiscal year. Money in the Indian water rights settlement fund shall be used to pay the state's portion of the costs necessary to implement Indian water rights settlements approved by the legislature and the United States congress. The interstate stream commission shall administer the fund and money in the fund is appropriated to the commission to carry out the purposes of the fund. Money in the fund shall be disbursed on warrants of the secretary of finance and administration pursuant to vouchers signed by an authorized representative of the interstate stream commission.
History: Laws 2005, ch. 172, § 2.
ANNOTATIONSEffective dates. — Laws 2005, ch. 172, § 3 made the act effective July 1, 2005.
Settlement of Indian water rights did not require state legislative approval. — Where the Navajo Nation, the United States, and the state of New Mexico reached an agreement settling the Navajo Nation's claims to water in the San Juan river basin, and where federal legislation to approve and implement the settlement agreement was enacted by congress, and where the New Mexico legislature appropriated funds to pay New Mexico's cost of the settlement agreement and authorized the New Mexico state engineer to seek judicial approval regarding the state's share of the water, and where the district court approved the settlement agreement, concluding that the settlement agreement was fair, adequate, reasonable, and consistent with the public interests as well as all applicable laws, appellants' claim that the settlement required the express approval of the New Mexico legislature was without merit, because interstate bodies of water, like the San Juan river, are ultimately subject to the control of the federal, not the state, government, and because Indian tribes have a proprietary interest in waters recognized by federal reservation treaties, it is federal, not state, law that governs the validity and interpretation of water settlements between states and tribes. State ex rel. State Engineer v. San Juan Agricultural Water Users Ass'n, 2018-NMCA-053, cert. granted.