BOULDER, Colorado — Tribal leaders in the Colorado River Basin are urging Congress to quickly sign off on a $5 billion settlement that would cap four decades of negotiations and speed construction of a new pipeline to deliver water from Lake Powell to reservation lands.
The Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement would ensure flows from the Colorado River, its tributaries and aquifers to the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe and San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe.
Each of the three tribes endorsed the agreement in May — which was also negotiated by the state of Arizona, a team from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s American Indian water rights office and a smattering of local governments — and it must now go to Congress for approval, including spending $5 billion for infrastructure projects, operational needs and purchasing additional water rights.
“The work is not done,” Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said last week at the University of Colorado’s annual Colorado Law Conference on Natural Resources.
