Conversations with Diné Water Haulers

This presentation will bring to light stories of Diné water haulers who have the most to benefit from Navajo Nation water settlements and litigation for its right to use water from the Colorado River Basin.  Water hauling begins most discussions related to water quality and quantity among Diné water users. Hauling water from unregulated wells for domestic use. Most recently, hauling potentially toxic water, for irrigation, due to a mine spill upstream of their Nation. It was a little over six years ago Dine’ water users of the San Juan River in New Mexico were giving celebratory thanks to their honorable leader, President Obama when he signed and authorized the Navajo-New Mexico San Juan River Basin Water Settlement, as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009. This bill will pipe surface water to supplement diminishing and briny ground water in the eastern and central regions of the Navajo Nation. The Dine’ and their leaders had envisioned this water pipeline in the 1960s. Officials from New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming had given support. Understandably Dine’ water users are on mixed grounds with their government over water quality and quantity today.