Navajo Times

Recreation Program
for Navajo Dam

State, federal and Indian officials met in Santa Fe to work out recreation agreements for the proposed water storage behind Navajo Dam, now under construction near Bloomfield.

An official of the Reclamation Bureau estimated the reservoir will start storing water in December.

There's an 85 percent chance next spring's snow runoff will fill the 245 square mile man-made lake to one third capacity, Cecil B. Jacobson said. That would be enough for initial fishing and boating facilities.

Jacobson told the conference which included Colorado and New Mexico officials, that the filling timetable is subject to federal approval.

The National Park Service hopes to build the facilities and then turn them over to Colorado and New Mexico to run. A prime reason for the meeting was to reach agreements on these matters.

How far game and fish management could be developed if the Navajo water level fluctuates while Glen Canyon is being filled downstream on the Arizona-Utah border was a major question before the conference being held at the National Park Service Regional Headquarters.

The possibility the Navajo might have to reduce its water to one-fourth capacity for three to 10 years so the bigger Glen Canyon can be filled was raised by Jacobson.

This release would come between Labor Day and May 1, rather than during the height of the sports season, Jacobson added. Jacobson is the Bureau's regional control engineer.

Navajo Dam will be fed by the San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado. Glen Canyon, whose completion is set for early 1963, is on the main stream.

Jacobson stated water being released to Glen Canyon, which eventually will store 15 times as much as Navajo, because it is the "paymaster of the Upper Colorado System."

Facilities for irrigation of Indian lands, which Navajo will provide, will not be ready by the time the dam is completed next spring.

$686,206 in federal funds have been authorized but not appropriated in the next fiscal year, according to John Moseley of Santa Fe, National Park Service landscape architect.

If granted, a boating site and other facilities would be built where the Pine River enters the reservoir, one mile from the dam.

The first year's flow would probably back water beyond the Colorado border to the Arboles site, similar to Pine River. This project is planned for the following fiscal year.

Several state agencies representatives outlined briefly their plans for operation of facilities which would be turned over to them by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Fred A. Thompson, Game and Fish Department director and James L. Dillard, acting state parks director presented New Mexico's plans.

Appearing for Colorado were Harry R. Woodward of the Game and Fish Department and Harold L. Lathrop of the State Parks and Recreation Board.

Southern Ute Tribal Council spokesman was John E. Baker. He said the tribe felt it had certain basic privileges in connection with the area but that the land acquired from the tribe was considered to have been severed from the reservation. This land is now subject to general recreation land use.

The tribe has reserved control of several small areas of the Navajo Dam lake and shoreline for any possible business operations.

Assistant regional director for the Bureau of Reclamation at Salt Lake City, Charles S. Rippon, warned state agencies not to oversell or overbuild their developments.

Development has to be subservient to the possible future need for water, he said.