Home/Basins
Settlements by river system
Which settlements sit on which rivers, verified against the settlement records themselves, because basin geography is exactly the kind of fact that gets mangled when data is generated instead of sourced. Only verified assignments appear here.
Rio Grande (Pojoaque Basin; Regional Water System diverts from the Rio Grande)
- Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act (New Mexico) (source)
Rio Grande system (Rio Pueblo de Taos and Rio Hondo stream systems)
- taos-abeyta (New Mexico) (source)
San Juan River (Colorado River system)
- navajo-san-juan-nm (New Mexico) (source)
San Juan River basin (plus Rio Chama basin claims)
- Jicarilla Apache Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 1992 (New Mexico) (source)
Little Colorado River basin (Colorado River system)
Gila River / Central Arizona Project (Colorado River water)
- gila-river-awsa-2004 (Arizona) (source)
Milk River
- fort-belknap (Montana) (source)
The Colorado River question
The largest concentration of tribal water claims, quantified and not, sits in the Colorado River system. Facts on record (each with its source and date):
- The Colorado River Basin is home to 30 federally recognized Tribal Nations. (narf.org)
- 22 Tribal Nations hold quantified rights to use approximately 3.2 million acre-feet (MAF) of Colorado River water annually. (narf.org)
- The 3.2 MAF of quantified tribal rights equates to about 25% of the Basin's average annual supply. (narf.org)
- 12 Tribal Nations have unresolved (unquantified) water rights claims. (narf.org)
- The current Shortage Guidelines are set to expire in September 2026; Post-2026 negotiations are led by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in collaboration with the seven basin states, Tribal Nations, Mexico, and other stakeholders. (narf.org)
- Agreements expiring at the end of 2026 include the 2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and Coordinated Operations, the 2019 Drought Contingency Plans, and related U.S.-Mexico agreements under the 1944 Water Treaty. (usbr.gov)
- The Post-2026 NEPA process was formally initiated in June 2023 with a Notice of Intent; an Alternatives Report was published January 17, 2025. (usbr.gov)
- The Draft EIS was released January 9, 2026; the public comment period ran January 16 to March 2, 2026 and drew 18,127 submissions. (usbr.gov)
- The Final EIS was released July 31, 2026, and the Record of Decision was issued August 21, 2026, adopting the Preferred Alternative's Decision Framework; 2027-2028 Operating Guidelines were issued with the Record of Decision covering the initial two-year period of successor operations. (usbr.gov)
New Mexico stream adjudications on record
General stream adjudications listed by the NM Office of the State Engineer that involve pueblo or tribal claims, including several with no enacted federal settlement. Case numbers appear exactly as OSE prints them; a blank means OSE's page does not print one.
| Adjudication | Court | Case no. (as printed) | Status as described by OSE |
|---|---|---|---|
| State of New Mexico ex rel. State Engineer, et al. v. R. Lee Aamodt, et al. | United States District Court | 66cv06639 | Santa Fe County page: 'The final judgment and decree was filed by the Court on July 14, 2017. The final decree incorporates the Pueblos' partial final decree and other pertinent orders of the Court for the purpose of identifying, quantifying, and fully describing all water rights within the Pojoaque Basin Stream System.' County further describes the Pojoaque Basin Regional Water System as 'a large infrastructure project currently underway in Northern New Mexico', delivering 'up to 2,500 acre-feet of water annually with capacity for expansion', Bureau of Reclamation lead, 'Construction is planned in three phases, with a projected completion of Phase 2 in 2029'. The OSE settlement page's narrative stops at the December 2013 order-to-show-cause stage while linking the 2016 partial final decree and 2017 final judgment PDFs. |
| State of New Mexico ex rel. State Engineer, et al., v. Eduardo Abeyta, et al., and Celso Arellano, et al. | United States District Court | 69cv07896 and 69cv07939 (consolidated) | 'The Court is conducting an expedited inter se proceeding to determine whether to enter the proposed Partial Final Judgment and Decree adjudicating the Pueblo's water rights according to the terms of the Settlement Agreement. Notice is being provided to all water rights claimants in the Rio Hondo and Rio Pueblo de Taos stream systems of their opportunity to review the settlement and the proposed decree, and to file objections, if any, with the court.' NOTE: this OSE narrative references a March 31, 2017 statutory deadline in the present tense; the page text appears to predate that deadline and the page carries no update date. No decree entry is stated on the fetched OSE pages. |
| In the matter of United States vs. A&R Productions, et. al. | 01cv00072 MV/LFG | 'Welcome to the web site for the water rights adjudication of the Zuni River Basin in New Mexico. The intention of this web site is to function as a public repository for those involved parties who are interested in obtaining information related to this court case and the subsequent general stream adjudication.' No stage/decree language is printed on the fetched pages; the What's New page's dated substantive entries run 2007-2010, with a counsel-address change noted April 2025. | |
| navajo-nation-san-juan | Eleventh Judicial District Court - San Juan River Basin Adjudication | 'The San Juan River adjudication court conducted an expedited inter se proceeding and on November 1, 2013, entered two Partial Final Judgments and Decrees ("decrees") adjudicating the water rights of the Navajo Nation. Appeals of the decrees are pending before the NM Supreme Court.' Also: the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project pipeline is described as 'currently under construction by the Bureau of Reclamation'. NOTE: the OSE page carries no update date; the 'appeals pending' statement is reproduced as printed with unknown vintage. | |
| ohkay-owingeh-rio-chama | The OSE page contains only the heading and the sentence 'Documents pertaining to the settlement agreement are as follows:'. No status, dates, court, or case number are printed. | ||
| State of New Mexico ex rel. State Engineer v. Tom Abousleman, et al. | United States District Court | 83cv01041 | Listed as an active adjudication case (Rio Jemez basin) with a court-filings subpage. No stage description, dates, or settlement information printed on the fetched page. |
| rio-san-jose-acoma-laguna | The page lists an expedited inter se subproceeding to adjudicate Acoma and Laguna water rights, with a litigation docket sheet covering 2004-2011 and answer filings by Acoma, Laguna, and the United States. No current stage or decree status is printed. |
Source: NM OSE adjudications, retrieved 2026-09-01. OSE pages do not print last-updated dates; status language may predate recent filings.
No hydrology figures (flows, snowpack, allocations) appear on this site yet: publishing them honestly requires per-gauge ingestion from USGS/NRCS with retrieval dates, which is scoped for a later revision. What you see is what the settlement records state.