[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 115 (Thursday, July 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4550-S4551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-143. A joint memorial adopted by the legislature of the 
     State of Colorado urging the United States Congress to fully 
     fund the authorized thirty-five million dollars to the 
     ``Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act'' 
     according to the recommendations of the Colorado River 
     Drought Task Force; to the Committee on Indian Affairs.

                    Senate Joint Memorial No. 24-002

       Whereas, The Ute People were the original inhabitants of 
     what is now the state of Colorado, and the two federally 
     recognized tribes in Colorado are the sovereign nations of 
     the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe; 
     and
       Whereas, The Pine River Indian Irrigation Project, or 
     ``PRIIP'', is a series of canals and ditches, largely located 
     in southwestern Colorado on Southern Ute Indian tribal land, 
     that is intended to bring water to tribal lands for 
     agriculture and that was constructed by the Bureau of Indian 
     Affairs during the late 1800s and early 1900s; and
       Whereas, The PRIIP system should be providing water to 
     approximately 14,495 acres and nearly 400 individual users, 
     including approximately 100 non-Native users and the town of 
     Ignacio, Colorado, but due to extreme deterioration of 
     infrastructure, its actual output falls far below that goal; 
     and
       Whereas, The deteriorated condition of the PRIIP system 
     means that some of its users are unable to access and use 
     water for agricultural irrigation; this neglect has had a 
     devastating effect on many farmers and ranchers; and
       Whereas, Making efforts toward rehabilitation and 
     improvement of the PRIIP system, the Southern Ute Indian 
     Tribe started a multiyear program to rehabilitate portions of 
     the PRIIP system using $4.88 million of tribal funding in 
     2018, but funding to finish construction on completed 
     engineering designs is running low; and
       Whereas, in 2023, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which still 
     operates the PRIIP system, completed a modernization plan for 
     the system that has a rough cost estimate of $60.7 million, 
     and there are other cost estimates for modernization that 
     range as high as $109 million; and
       Whereas, PRIIP system water users pay 100% of the system's 
     operations and maintenance annual assessments; however, these 
     fees are simply insufficient to accomplish the necessary 
     annual operations and maintenance work, much less the 
     millions required to address deferred maintenance; and
       Whereas, The growing disrepair of the PRIIP system has 
     still not been adequately catalogued, though the following 
     issues have been highlighted by studies done in 2000 and 2008 
     by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and illustrate the system's 
     dilapidated condition:
        Only an estimated 15% of the PRIIP system's 175 
     miles of canals can be considered to be in good condition;
        Some of the system's major diversion structures 
     date back to the 1930s, with no major rehabilitation or 
     improvements since the early 1960s;
        The system's largest canal, the Dr. Morrison 
     canal, which serves over 4,500 irrigable acres of Tribal land 
     and non-Tribal land, has breached 3 times;
        The Dr. Morrison canal also has multiple large, 
     antiquated flumes in danger of failing;
        Dozens of smaller irrigation structures 
     constructed before the 1920s have collapsed and have simply 
     been abandoned;
        Ditches have also been abandoned, and lands that 
     were previously irrigated have become derelict, requiring 
     costly rehabilitation;
        Erosion has created miles of incised channels and 
     ditches, where elevated headgates no longer allow for the 
     diversion of water to lands that were historically irrigated; 
     and
        Neglect of operation and maintenance roads has 
     made access to many structures and sections of ditch either 
     unsafe or impossible altogether; and

[[Page S4551]]

       Whereas, This ongoing lack of efficient water delivery to 
     both Tribal lands and non-Tribal lands presents a significant 
     barrier to agricultural development for the Southern Ute 
     Indian Tribe, as well as the local community; and
       Whereas, Recently, the Bureau of Indian Affairs received 
     $466 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as 
     enacted in 2021 by the federal ``Infrastructure Investment 
     and Jobs Act'', to be used over the next 5 years; however, of 
     that funding, only $35 million, $7 million annually, is 
     allocated to the 16 Indian Irrigation Projects in the western 
     United States; and
       Whereas, The Bureau of Indian Affairs' report for the 
     fourth quarter of the 2021 fiscal year outlines an initial 
     spending plan for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding 
     and recognizes that, altogether, there is $788 million in 
     deferred maintenance for all 16 Indian Irrigation Projects; 
     and
       Whereas, Funding to address some of the PRIIP system's 
     needs was authorized in the federal ``Water Infrastructure 
     Improvements for the Nation Act'', or the ``WIIN Act'', which 
     was enacted in 2016; and
       Whereas, The ``WIIN Act'' established the Indian Irrigation 
     Fund in the United States Department of the Treasury to 
     address the deferred maintenance, repair, and replacement 
     needs of Indian Irrigation Projects in the western United 
     States; and
       Whereas, The ``WIIN Act'' came as a great relief to the 
     Southern Ute Indian Tribe and many other tribes who had been 
     requesting help with decaying federal irrigation projects for 
     decades, but repairs under the ``WIIN Act'' met an unexpected 
     delay; while the ``WIIN Act'' authorized funding for this 
     critical purpose, the actual appropriations have not come 
     close to the authorized amounts; and
       Whereas, in 2020, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Southern Ute 
     Agency received ``WIIN Act'' funding, and the amount awarded 
     was approximately $135,000; this money was spent by the 
     Bureau of Indian Affairs to purchase much-needed heavy 
     equipment, but the needs for the PRIIP system go well beyond 
     what heavy equipment can do; and
       Whereas, The ``WIIN Act'' directs the United States 
     Secretary of the Treasury to deposit $35 million annually 
     through the 2028 fiscal year into the Indian Irrigation Fund, 
     with such sums plus accrued interest to be transferred to the 
     United States Secretary of the Interior for distribution by 
     the Bureau of Indian Affairs; however, since its inception, 
     Congress has only appropriated $10 million per year to the 
     fund, less than one-third of the $35 million authorized; and
       Whereas, Not only does this level of appropriation fail to 
     even begin to address the demonstrated need, continued delay 
     simply adds to future costs as deterioration of the PRIIP 
     system continues; and
       Whereas, in light of this demonstrated need, the Colorado 
     River Drought Task Force's Sub-task Force on Tribal Matters, 
     in the final report of the task force dated December 15, 
     2023, unanimously recommended legislative support from the 
     Colorado General Assembly; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate of the Seventy-fourth General 
     Assembly of the State of Colorado, the House of 
     Representatives concurring herein:
       (1) That the Colorado River Drought Task Force considers 
     the deterioration of the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project 
     an urgent matter of the state of Colorado, as reflected by 
     the Sub-task Force's unanimous recommendation for legislative 
     support; and
       (2) That the Congress of the United States is hereby 
     memorialized to fully fund the authorized $35 million to the 
     ``Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act'' for 
     necessary improvements to the Pine River Indian Irrigation 
     Project; and be it further
       Resolved, That copies of this Memorial be sent to President 
     Joseph Biden; Governor Jared Polis; the Speaker of the United 
     States House of Representatives; the President of the United 
     States Senate; each member of Colorado's congressional 
     delegation; the Tribal Council of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe 
     and the chairman of the Tribe, Manuel Heart; the Tribal 
     Council of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the chairman of 
     the Tribe, Melvin J. Baker; and the United States House of 
     Representatives and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on 
     Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.

                          ____________________