Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland recently announced the Department of the Interior (DOI) will allocate $1.7 billion to fulfill settlements of Tribal water rights claims. The funding will come from President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“The Interior Department will be able to uphold our trust responsibilities and ensure that Tribal communities receive the water resources they have long been promised,” Haaland said in a statement. “I am grateful that Tribes, some of whom have been waiting for this funding for decades, are finally getting the resources they are owed.”
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates more than $13 billion to Tribes and also makes Tribal communities eligible for billions of dollars more in investments. A total of $2.5 billion is also included to implement the Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund.
The fund will deliver “long-promised water resources to Tribes, certainty to all their non-Indian neighbors and a solid foundation for future economic development for entire communities dependent on common water resources,” DOI said.
The $1.7 billion will be allocated this year to enacted settlements that have outstanding federal payments necessary to complete their terms.
The following Tribes and settlements will receive funding this year from the Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund and from funds available from the existing Reclamation Water Settlement Fund:
• Aamodt Litigation Settlement; Pueblos of San Ildefonso, Nambй, Pojoaque and Tesuque.
• Blackfeet Nation.
• Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
• Crow Tribe.
• Gila River Indian Community.
• Navajo-Utah Water Rights Settlement and Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project.
• San Carlos Apache Nation.
• Tohono O’odham Nation.
• White Mountain Apache Tribe.
The Reclamation Water Settlement Fund was created by Congress in 2009 and receives $120 million in mandatory funding annually from 2020-29. Depending on congressional action on Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget, additional Tribes will also see investments to address ongoing federal obligations, such as operation, maintenance and repair costs under existing settlements, DOI said.
As of Nov. 15, when the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was signed, there were 34 congressionally enacted water rights settlements.
“Settlement of Indian water rights disputes breaks down barriers and helps create conditions that improve water resources management by providing certainty as to the rights of all water users who are parties to the disputes,” DOI said.
As part of the implementation, an Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund Executive Committee has been established. The committee comprises the commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, the chairperson of the Working Group on Indian Water Settlements, the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the assistant secretaries of Water and Science and Indian Affairs, and the solicitor. The committee will recommend future allocations of the remainder of the Completion Fund to the DOI secretary. —
