An Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the Navajo Indian irrigation project and the initial stage of the San Juan-Chama project as participating projects of the Colorado River storage project, and for other purposes
PL 87-483 (S.107), enacted 06/13/1962

96 
PUBLIC LAW 87-483-JUNE 13, 1962 
[76 STAT. 
June 13, 1962 
[S. 107] 
Navajo Indian ir-
rigation p r o j e c t ; 
San Juan-Chama 
project. 
43 U S C 620-
620O. 
43 u s e 620c. 
Public a t i on in 
F. R. 
41 Stat. 437. 
Public Law 87-483 
AN ACT 
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain 
the Navajo Indian irrigation project and the initial stage of the San Juan-
Chama project as participating projects of the Coloi'ado River storage i)i*oject, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and IIou,ie of ReiyreHentatioe^ of the 
United States of America in Congress assemhhd, That, for the pur-
poses of furnishing water for the irrigation of irrigable and arable 
lands and for municipal, domestic, and industrial uses, providing 
recreation and fish and wildlife benefits, and controlling silt, and for 
other beneficial purposes, the Congress approves as participating 
projects of the Colorado Eiver storage project (Act of April 11,1956, 
T
O Stat. 105, as amended, 43 U.S.C. 620-620o) the Navajo Indian 
irrigation project. New Mexico, and the initial stage of the San Juan-
Chama project, Colorado-New Mexico. The Navajo Indian irrigation 
project and the initial stage of the San Juan-Chama project herein 
approved are .substantially those described in the proposed coordinated 
report of the Acting Commissioner of Reclamation and the Commis-
sioner of Indian Atfaii-s, approved and adopted by the Secretary of 
the Interior on October 16,1957, as conditioned, modified, and limited 
herein. 
NAVAJO INDIAN IRRIGA'nON PROJECT 
SEC. 2. Pursuant to the provisions of the Act of April 11, 1956, 
as amended, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct, 
operate, and maintain the Navajo Indian irrigation project for the 
principal purpose of furnishing irrigation water to approximately 
one hundred and ten thousand six hundred and thirty acres of land, 
said project to have an average annual diversion of five hundred and 
eight thousand acre-feet of water and the repayment of the costs of 
construction thereof to be in accordance with the provisions of said 
Act of April 11, 1956, as amended, including, but not limited to, sec-
tion 4(d) thereof. 
SEC. 3. (a) In order to provide for the most economical development 
of the Navajo Indian irrigation project, the Secretary shall declare 
by publication in the Federal Register that the United States of 
America holds in trust for the Navajo Tribe of Indians any legal 
subdivisions or unsurveyed tracts of federally owned land outside the 
present boundary of the Navajo Indian Reservation in New ]S|exico 
in townships 28 and 29 north, ranges 10 and 11 west, and tow^nships 27 
and 28 north, ranges 12 and 13 west. New Mexico principal meridian, 
susceptible to irrigation as part of the project or necessary for loca-
tion of any of the works or canals of such project: Provided, 
however, 
That no such legal subdivision or unsurveyed tract shall be so de-
clared to be held in trust by the United States for the Navajo Tribe 
until the Navajo Tribe shall have paid the United States the full ap-
praised value thereof: And provided further, That in making ap-
praisals of such lands the Secretary shall consider their values as of 
the date of approval of this Act, excluding therefrom the value of 
minerals subject to leasing under the Act of February 25, 1920, as 
amend.ed (30 U.S.C. 181-286), and such leasable minerals shall not be 
held in tnist for the Navajo Tribe but shall continue to be subject to 
leasing under the Act of February 25, 1920, as amended, after the 
lands containing them have been declared to be held in trust by the 
United States for the Navajo Tribe. 
(b) The Navajo Tribe is authorized to convey to the United States, 
and the Secretary shall accept on behalf of the United States, title to 
76 STAT. ] 
PUBLIC LAW 87-483-JUNE 13, 1962 
97 
any land or interest in land within the above-described townships, 
susceptible to irrigation as part of the Navajo Indian irrigation project 
or necessary for location of any of the works or canals of such project, 
acquired in fee simple by the Navajo Tribe, and after such conveyance 
said land or interest in land shall be held in trust by the L^nited States 
for the Navajo Tribe as apart of the project. 
(c) The Secretary is authorized to acquire by purchase, exchange, 
or condemnation any other land or interest in land within the town-
ships above described susceptible to irrigation as part of the Navajo 
Indian irrigation project or necessary for location of any of the works 
or canals of such project. 
After such acquisition, said lands or interest 
in lands shall be held by the United States in trust for the Navajo 
Tribe of Indians. 
SEC. 4. In developing the Navajo Indian irrigation project, the Sec-
retary is authorized to provide capacity for municipal and industrial 
water supplies or miscellaneous purposes over and aoove the diversion 
requirements for irrigation stated m section 2 of this Act, but such 
additional capacity shall not be constructed and no appropriation of 
funds for such construction shall be made until contracts have been 
executed which, in the judgment of the Secretary, provide satisfactory 
assurance of repayment of all costs properly allocated to the purposes 
aforesaid with interest as provided by law. 
SEC. 5. Payment of operation and maintenance charges of the irri-
gation features of the Navajo Indian irrigation project shall be in ^hlrge 
accordance with the provisions of the Act of August 1, 1914 (38 Stat. 
582, 583), as amended (25 U.S.C. 385): Provided, That the Secretary 
may transfer to the Navajo Tribe of Indians the care, operation, and 
maintenance of all or any part of the project works, subject to such 
rules and regulations as he may prescribe and, in such event, the Secre-
tary may transfer to the Navajo Tribe title to movable property neces-
sary to the operation and maintenance of those works. 
SEC. 6. For the period ending ten years after completion of construc-
tion of the Navajo Indian irrigation project no water from the project 
shall be delivered to any water user for the production on newly 
irrigated lands of any basic agricultural commodity, as defined in 
section 408(c) of the Agricultural Act of 1949 (63 Stat. 1056, 7 U.S.C. 
1428), or any amendment thereof, if the total supply of such com-
modity for the marketing year in which the bulk of the crop would 
normally be marketed is in excess of the normal supply as defined 
in section 301(b) (10) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 
(52 Stat. 41), as amended (7 U.S.C. 1281), unless the Secretary of 
Agriculture calls for an increase in production of such commodity in 
the interest of national security. 
SEC. 7. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated to the Bureau 
of Indian Affairs such sums as may be required to construct the Navajo 
Indian irrigation project, including the purchase of lands under sec-
tion 3, subsection (c), of this Act, but not more than $135,000,000 (June 
1961 prices) plus or minus such amounts, if any, as may be required 
by reason of changes in construction costs as indicated by engineering 
cost indices applicable to the types of construction involved therein. 
Land a c qu i si-
tion. 
Capacity. 
Operation and 
m a i n t e n a n c e 
Water use. 
7 u s e 1301. 
Appropriation. 
SAN JUAN-CHAMA RECLAMATION PROJECT (INITIAL STAGE) 
SEC. 8. Pursuant to the provisions of the Act of April 11, 1956, 
as amended, the Secretary is authorized to construct, operate, and 
maintain the initial sta^e of the San Juan-Chama project, Colorado-
New Mexico, for the principal purposes of furnishing water supplies 
to approximately thirty-nine thousand three hundred acres of land in 
the Cerro, Taos, Llano, and Pojoaque tributary irrigation units i*i the 
43 u s e 
62 0-
620o. 
78135 0-63—10 
m 
PUBLIC LAW 87-483-JUNE 13, 1962 
[76 STAT. 
Rio Grande Basin and approximately eighty-one thousand six hundred 
acres of land in the existing Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District 
and for municipal, domestic, and industrial uses, and providing 
recreation and fish and wildlife benefits. The diversion facilities of 
the initial stage authorized herein shall be so constructed and operated 
as to divert only natural flow of the Navajo, Little Navajo, and Blanco 
Rivers in Colorado as set forth in the supplemental project report 
dated May 1957. The principal engineering works of the initial stage 
development, involving three major elements, shall include diversion 
dams and conduits, storage and regulation facilities at the Heron 
Numbered 4 Reservoir site, enlarged outlet works of the existing El 
Vado Dam, and water use facilities consisting of reservoirs, dams, 
canals, lateral and drainage systems, and associated works and ap-
purtenances. The construction of recreation facilities at the Namb^j 
Reservoir shall be contingent upon the Secretary's making appropriate 
arrangements with the governing body of the Nambe Pueblo for the 
operation and maintenance of such facilities, and the construction of 
recreation facilities at the Heron Numbered 4, Valdez, and Indian 
Camp Reservoirs shall be contingent upon his making appropriate 
arrangements with a State or local agency or organization for the 
operation and maintenance of those facilities: Provided, That— 
Conditions. 
(a) the Secretary shall so operate the initial stage of the project 
authorized herein that diversions to the Rio Grande Valley shall 
not exceed one million three hundred and fifty thousand acre-feet 
of water in any period of ten consecutive years, reckoned in con-
tinuing progressive series starting with the first day of October 
after the project shall have commenced operation: Provided, how-
ever, That not more than two hundred and seventy thousand acre-
feet shall be diverted in any one year; 
(b) the Secretary shall operate the project so that there shall 
be no injury, impairment, or depletion of existing or future bene-
ficial uses of water within the State of Colorado, the use of which 
is within the apportionment made to the State of Colorado by 
article I I I of the Upper Colorado River Basin compact, as pro-
vided hy article I X of the Upper Colorado River Basin compact 
and article I X of the Rio Grande compact; 
(c) all works of the project shall be constructed so as to permit 
compliance physically with all provisions of the Rio Grande com-
pact, and all such works shall be operated at all times in con-
formity with said compact; 
(d) the amount of water diverted in the Rio Grande Basin for 
uses served by the San Juan-Chama project shall be limited in 
any calendar year to the amount of imported water available to 
such uses from importation to and storage in the Rio Grande 
Basin in that year; 
(e) details of project operation essential to accounting for 
diverted San Juan and Rio Grande flows shall be developed 
through the joint efforts of the Rio Grande Compact Commission, 
the Upper Colorado River Commission, the appropriate agencies 
of the United States and of the States of Colorado, New Mexico, 
and Texas, and the various project entities. In this connection 
the States of Texas and New Mexico shall agree, within a reason-
able time, on a system of gaging devices and measurements to 
secure data necessary to determine the present effects of tributary 
irrigation, as well as present river channel losses: Provided, That 
if the State of Texas shall require, as a condition precedent to 
such agreement, gaging devices and measurements in addition to 
or different from those considered by the Department of the 
Interior and the State of New Mexico to be necessary to this 
76 STAT. ] 
PUBLIC LAW 87-483-JUNE 13, 1962 
99 
determination, the State of Texas shall pay one-half of all costs 
of constructing and operating such additional or different devices 
and making such additional or different measurements which are 
not borne by the United States. The results of the action required 
by this subsection shall be incorporated in a written rep>ort trans-
mitted to the States of Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico for 
comment in the manner provided in the Flood Control Act of 
1944 before any appropriation shall be made for 
project 
construction; 
(f) the Secretary shall operate the project so that for the pres-
ervation of fish and aquatic life the flow of the Navajo River and 
the flow of the Blanco River shall not be depleted at the project 
diversion points below the values set forth at page D2-7 of ap-
pendix D of the United States Bureau of Reclamation report 
entitled "San Juan-Chama Project, Colorado-New Mexico", 
dated November 1955; 
(g) the Secretary is hereby authorized to construct the tunnel 
and conduit works of the initial stage of the San Juan-Chama 
project with sufficient capacity for future divei'sion of an aver-
age of two hundred and thirty-five thousand acre-feet per annum: 
Provided^ hoicever^ That nothing contained in this Act shall be 
construed as committing the Congress of the United States to 
future authorization of any additional stage of the San Juan-
Chama project. 
SEC. 9. For the period ending ten years after completion of con-
struction of the initial stage of the San Juan-Chama project no water 
from the project shall be delivered to any water user for the produc-
tion on newly irrigated lands of any basic agricultural commodity, as 
defined in section 408(c) of the Agricultural Act of 1949 (63 Stat. 
1056, 7 U.S.C. 1428), or any amendment thereof, if the total supply of 
such commodity for the marketing year in which the bulk of the crop 
would normally be marketed is in excess of the normal supply as 
defined in section 301(b) (10) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 
1938 (52 Stat. 41), as amended (7 U.S.C. 1281), unless the Secretary 
of Agriculture calls for an increase in production of sucli commodity 
in the interest of national security. 
SEC. 10. The amount which section 12 of the Act of April 11, 1956, 
authorizes to be appropriated is hereby increased by $85,828,000 (June 
1961 prices) plus or minus such amounts, if any, as may be required 
by reason of changes in construction costs as indicated by engineering 
cost indices applicable to the types of construction involved, which 
increase shall be available solely for construction of the San Juan-
('hama project and shall not be used for any other purpose. 
58 Stat. 888. 
33 u s e 701-1. 
7 u s e 1301. 
Appropriation. 
70 Stat. 110. 
43 u s e 620k. 
GENERAL 
SEC. 11. (a) No person shall have or be entitled to have the use for 
any purpose, including uses under the Navajo Indian irrigation project 
and the San Juan-Chama project authorized by sections 2 and 8 of 
this Act, of water stored in Navajo Reservoir or of any other waters 
of the San Juan River and its tributaries originating above Navajo 
Reservoir to the use of which the United States is entitled under these 
projects except under contract satisfactory to the Secretary and con-
forming to the provisions of this Act. Such contracts, which, in the 
case of water for Indian uses, shall be executed with the Navajo Tribe, 
shall make provision, in any year in which the Secretary anticipates 
a shortage, taking into account both prospective runoff originating 
above Navajo Reservoir and the available water in storage in Navajo 
Reservoir, for a sharing of the available water in the following man-
eontracts. 
100 
PUBLIC LAW 87-483-JUNE 13, 1962 
[76 STAT. 
ner: The prospective runoff shall be apportioned between the con-
tractors diverting above and those diverting at or below Navajo 
Reservoir in the proportion that the total normal diversion require-
ment of each group bears to the total of all normal diversion require-
ments. In the case of contractors diverting above Navajo Reservoir, 
each such contract shall provide for a sharing of the runoff apportioned 
to said group in the same proportion as the normal diversion require-
ment under said contract bears to the total normal diversion require-
ments of all such contracts that have been made hereunder: Provided^ 
That for any year in which the foregoing sharing procedure either 
would apportion to any contractor diverting above Navajo Reservoir 
an amount in excess of the runoff anticipated to be physically available 
at the point of his diversion, or would result in no water being avail-
able to one or more such contractors, the runoff apportioned to said 
group shall be reapportioned, as near as may be, among the contractors 
diverting above Navajo Reservoir in the proportion that the normal 
diversion requirements of each bears to the total normal diversion re-
quirements of the group. In the case of contractors diverting from 
or below Navajo Reservoir, each such contract shall provide for a 
sharing of the remaining runoff together with the available storage 
in the same proportion as then normal diversion requirement under 
said contract bears to the total normal diversion requirements under 
all such contracts that have been made hereunder. 
The Secretary shall not enter into contracts for a total amount of 
water beyond that which, in his judgment, in the event of shortage, 
will result in a reasonable amount being available for the diversion 
requirements for the Navajo Indian irrigation project and the initial 
stage of the San Juan-Chama project as specified in sections 2 and 8 
of this Act. 
No long-term contract, except contracts for the benefit of the lands 
and for the purposes specified in sections 2 and 8 of this Act, shall be 
entered into for the delivery of water stored in Navajo Reservoir or 
of any other waters of the San Juan River and its tributaries, as afore-
said, until the Secretary has determined by hydrologic investigations 
that sufficient water to fulfill said contract is reasonably likely to be 
available for use in the State of New Mexico during the term thereof 
under the allocations made in articles I I I and XIV of the Upper 
Colorado River Basin compact, and has submitted such determina-
tion to the Congress of the United States and the Congress has ap-
proved such contracts: Provided^ That nothing contained in the fore-
going shall be construed to forbid the Secretary from entering into 
temporary water supply contracts in the San Juan River Ba^in for any 
year in which he determines that water legally available for use in 
the upper basin of the Colorado River system would otherwise not be 
used there and is not needed to fulfill the obligations of the upper 
division States with respect to delivei-y of water at Lee Ferry. 
(b) If contracts are entered into for delivery from storage in Navajo 
Reservoir of water not covered by subsection (a) of this section, such 
contracts shall be subject to the same provision for sharing of available 
water supply in the event of shortage as in the case of contracts re-
quired to be made pursuant to subparagraph (a) of this section. 
Limitations. 
^ 
(c) Tliis section sliall not be applicable to the water requirements 
of the existing Fruitland, Hogback, Cudai, and Cambridge Indian 
irrigation projects, nor to the water required in connection with the 
extension of the irrigated acreages of the Fruitland and Hogback 
Indian irrigation projects in a total amount of approximately eleven 
thousand acres. 
SEC. 12. (a) None of the project works or structures authorized by 
this Act shall be so operated as to create, implement, or satisfy any 
76 STAT. ] 
PUBLIC LAW 87-483-JUNE 13, 1962 
101 
preferential right in the United States or any Indian tribe to the 
waters impounded, diverted, or used by means of such project works 
or structures, other than contained in those rights to the uses of water 
granted to the States of New Mexico or Arizona pursuant to the 
provisions of the Upper Colorado River Basin compact. 
(b) The projects authorized by this Act shall be so operated that no 
waters shall be diverted or used by means of the project works, which, 
together with all other waters used in or diverted from the San Juan 
River Basin in New Mexico, will exceed the water available to the 
States of New Mexico and Arizona under the allocation contained in 
article I I I of the tapper Colorado River Basin compact for any water 
year. 
SEC. 13. (a) The use of water, including that diverted from the 
Colorado River system to the Rio G r ^ d e Basin, through works con-
structed under authority of this Act, 6hall be subject to and controlled 
by the Colorado River compact, the Upper Colorado River Basin 
compact, the Boulder Canyon Project Act, the Boulder Canyon 
4s stat. 1057; 
Project Adjustment Act, the Colorado River Storage Project Act, 70 stat! 10s' 
and the Mexican Water Treaty (Treaty Series 994), and shall be ^^\l 620.^6200 ^*' 
included within and shall in no way increase the total quantity of 
S9 stat. 1219. 
water to the use of which the State of New Mexico is entitled and 
limited under said compacts, statutes, and treaty, and every contract 
entered into under this Act for the storage, use, and delivery of such 
water shall so recite. 
(b) All works constructed under authority of this Act, and all 
officers, employees, permittees, licensees, and contractees of the United 
States and of the State of New Mexico acting pursuant thereto and 
all users and appropriators of water of the Colorado River system 
diverted or delivered through the works constructed under authority 
of this Act and any enlargements or additions thereto shall observe 
and be subject to said compacts, statutes, and treaty, as hereinbefore 
provided, in the diversion, delivery, and use of water of the Colorado 
River system, and such condition and covenant shall attach as a matter 
of law whether or not set out or referred to in the instrument evidenc-
ing such permit, license, or contract and shall be deemed to be for the 
benefit of and be available to the States of Arizona, California, Colo-
rado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and the users of 
water therein or thereunder by way of suit, defense, or otherwise in 
any litigation respecting the waters of the Colorado River system. 
(c) No right or claim of right to the use of the waters of the Colo-
rado River system shall be aided or prejudiced by this Act, and Con-
gress does not, by its enactment, construe or interpret any provision 
of the Colorado River compact, the Upper Colorado River Basin com-
pact, the Boulder Canyon Project Act, the Boulder Canyon Project 
Adjustment Act, the Colorado River Storage Project Act, or the 
Mexican Water Treaty or subject the United States to, or approve 
or disapprove any interpretation of, said compacts, statutes, or treaty, 
anything in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding. 
SEC. 14. In the operation and maintenance of all facilities under the 
jurisdiction and supervision of the Secretary of the Interior author-
ized by this Act, the Secretary is directed to comply with the applicable 
provisions of the Colorado River compact, the Upper Colorado River 
Basin compact, the Boulder Canyon Project Act, the Boulder Canyon 
Project Adjustment Act, the Colorado River Storage Project Act and 
the treaty with the United Mexican States in the storage and release 
of water from reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin. In the event 
of the failure of the Secretary of the Interior to so comply, any State 
of the Colorado River Basin may maintain an action in the Supreme 
Court of the United States to enforce the provisions of this section, 
102 
PUBLIC LAW 87-484-JUNE 15, 1962 
[76 STAT. 
R e p o r t to Con-
gress. 
70 Stat. 110. 
43 u s e 620k. 
70 Stat. 105. 
4 3 u s e 
62 0-
620o. 
and consent is given to the joinder of the United States as a party in 
such suit or suits, as a defendant or otherwise. 
SEC. 15. The Secretary of the Interior is directed to continue his 
studies of the quality of water of the Colorado River system, to ap-
praise its suitability for municipal, domestic, and industrial use and 
for irrigation in the various areas in the United States in which it is 
used or proposed to be used, to estimate the effect of additional develop-
ments involving its storage and use (whether heretofore authorized or 
contemplated for authorization) on the remaining water available for 
use in United States, to study all possible means of improving the 
quality of such water and of alleviating the ill effects of water of poor 
quality, and to report the results of his studies and estimates to the 
Eighty-seventh Congress and every two years thereafter. 
SEC. 16. (a) The diversion of water for either or both of the projects 
authorized in this Act shall in no way impair or diminish the obliga-
tion of the "States of the upper division" as provided in article III (d) 
of the Colorado River compact "not to cause the flow of the river at 
Lee Ferry to be depleted below an aggregate of seventy-five million 
acre-feet for any period of ten consecutive years reckoned in continu-
ing progressive series beginning with the first day of October next 
succeeding the ratification of this compact". 
(b) The diversion of water for either or both of the projects author-
ized in this Act shall in no way impair or diminish the obligation of 
the "States of the upper division" to meet their share of the Mexican 
Treaty burden as provided in article III(c) of the Colorado River 
compact. 
SEC. 17. Section 12 of the Act of April 11, 1956, shall not apply 
to the works authorized by this Act except as otherwise provided by 
section 10 of this Act. 
SEC. 18. The Act of April 11, 1956, as amended, is hereby further 
amended as follows: (i) In section 1, subsection (2), after the words 
"Central Utah (initial phase)" delete the colon and insert in lieu 
thereof a comma and the words "San Juan-Chama (initial stage)," 
and after the word "Lyman" insert the words "Navajo Indian,"; (ii) 
in section 2 delete the words "San Juan-Chama, Navajo," from the 
first sentence; (iii) in section 5, subsection (e), in'the phrase "herein 
or hereinafter authorized" delete the word "hereinafter" and insert 
in lieu thereof the word "hereafter"; (iv) in section 7 in the phrase 
"and any contract lawfully entered unto under said compacts and 
Acts" delete the word "unto" and insert in lieu thereof the word 
"into". 
Approved June 13, 1962, 11:15 a.m. 
June 15, 1962 
[H. R. 7559] 
Public Law 87-484 
AN ACT 
To amend title 3& of the United States Code to provide for additional writing or 
printing on third and fourth class mail. 
Postal Service. 
Third and fourth 
class mail. 
74 Stat. 676. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the present 
section 4555 of title 39, United States Code, be designated subpara-
graph (a) and a new subparagraph (b) be added as follows: 
"(b) There may be enclosed with, attached to, or endorsed upon 
third and fourth class mail, either in writing or otherwise, the instruc-
tions and directions for the use thereof." 
Approved June 15, 1962.