Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren testified Tuesday before the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries about four water rights bills that will bring water to the Navajo Nation and others tribes.
“About a third of Navajo families do not have running water, including the house where I grew up,” the President told the subcommittee. “Thousands of people continue to transport water more than 30 miles back and forth to meet daily water demands. Congress must act to end the water crisis on the Navajo Nation. This has made the pandemic devastating for my people and prevented us from doing what other Americans take for granted.”
President Nygren presented testimony on:
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H.R. 8940 – Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act
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H.R. 3977 – Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Amendments Act of 2023
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H.R. 8945 – San Joseì River Navajo Nation Water Rights Settlement Act of 2024
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H.R. 6599 – Technical corrections to the Northwest New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act, Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, and Aamodt Dispute Settlement Act.
Other tribal leaders who testified about the bills during the three-and-a-half-hour hearing were Hopi Tribal Vice Chairman Craig Andrews and Yavapai-Apache Nation President Tanya Lewis., Taos Pueblo Governor Fred Romero and Acoma Pueblo Governor Randall Vicente.
The purpose of the hearing was to examine several proposed Indian water rights settlements in Arizona, New Mexico and Montana, which collectively total more than $12 billion, the committee said.
The House Natural Resources Committee has declared that it has primary authorizing jurisdiction over the legislative resolution of Indian water rights claims. It has been a long-standing policy of the United States that disputes regarding Indian water rights be resolved through a negotiated settlement and not through litigation.
Chairman Nygren said H.R. 8940 will ratify the historic Northeast Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act between the Navajo Nation and 38 other parties. These include the Hopi tribe, the San Juan Southern Paiute tribe, the United States, and the state of Arizona. This will end decades of costly litigation and bring safety to users throughout the Colorado River Basin, he said.
“This agreement will resolve water rights claims for three indigenous nations,” said President Nygren. “It will also invest in desperately needed water infrastructure that will provide safe and reliable drinking water to these communities.”
Rep. Anthony Ciscomani (R-AZ), a sponsor of the bill, said the agreement is monumental for the tribes and Arizona’s water future as a whole.
“It is difficult to overstate the tireless efforts and decades of work that all parties to this legislation have put into this agreement,” said Congressman Ciscomani. “For too long, many tribal communities in northern Arizona have not had access to or have not had access to clean drinking water. It is high time we right this wrong and ensure these families and communities have reliable water resources, which are the foundation of a thriving community.”
Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland testified that the Northeast Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act marks the resolution of long-standing water claims and conflicts in northeast Arizona. He said the bill is a historic milestone in ensuring access to water for indigenous people in their homelands and others in the drought-stricken region.
“The United States has an obligation to protect the continued existence of Indian tribes,” Newland said. “This means ensuring that each tribe has a protected homeland where its citizens can maintain their tribal existence and way of life. Everyone must understand that water is essential to fulfill these obligations. In my written statement, I expressed the department’s support for nine of the bills before the committee today.”
President Nygren said each of the settlements will ensure a safe and secure water supply that is available and accessible to tens of thousands of Navajo people now and for future generations.
“No one in America should be denied access to water because of where they live,” he said. “(The agreement) will provide certainty for the future of our homeland and equal opportunities for the Navajo people.”
David Palumbo, deputy commissioner of operations for the Bureau of Reclamation, told the subcommittee that negotiated settlements, rather than litigation, are in the best interests of all parties, especially for tribal members’ beneficial use of their lands.
“If we went the litigation route, that wouldn’t necessarily happen,” Columbo said. “In fact, wet water is often not delivered to the reserve in disputes. It is not used in a beneficial way, it does not bring equity to the situation of tribes throughout the American West. Therefore, we believe that it is in the best fiscal interest, from an asset point of view, and that is why we support these agreements. It’s fulfilling our trust responsibility to tribes to act.”
Chairman Nygren said the Northeast Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act would fund the construction of a pipeline to divert Colorado River water from the LeChee Chapter in the northwestern portion of the Navajo Nation that borders Page, Arizona, and Lake Powell, for many Navajo communities. He said he would fund other water distribution projects.
The agreement and bill would ratify the treaty between the Navajo Nation and the Southern San Juan Paiute Tribe and create the Southern San Juan Paiute Reservation, he said.
“The Paiute people will finally join the other 21 tribes of Arizona and have a sovereign territory of their own,” said Chairman Nygren.
Speaking in support of H.R. 3977, the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Amendments Act of 2023, Chairman Nygren said Congress approved the San Juan Accord and authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to construct the Water Supply Project Navajo-Gallup in 2009. He said the water project brings water from the San Juan River to a quarter of a million people in eastern Navajo, Jicarilla Apache Nation and Gallup, N.M.
“The cost of the project is much higher than anticipated, in part due to the 40-year increase in inflation,” said President Nygren. “The bill makes several changes to ensure full implementation of the 2009 agreement by increasing the appropriations ceiling to complete the project and extending the completion deadline from 2024 to 2029. If not enacted, the San Juan Agreement and the completion of the project will be threatened. .”
The San Joseì River Flow System Water Rights Settlement Act – H.R. 8945 – authorizes an agreement to resolve the Navajo Nation’s water rights claim in the San Joseì River Basin, said President Nygren.
“This would end four decades of litigation and recognize the Nation’s rights to water in the Rio Puerco basin,” he said.
The bill is the Navajo counterpart to the Acoma and Laguna agreement in H.R. 1304.
“Settlement funds will bring water to the Rio San Jose and Rio Puerco basins, some of the driest in New Mexico,” said President Nygren. “This will help all water users in these basins manage depleted surface and groundwater.”
Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) is a co-sponsor of H.R. 1304, the San José River and Jemez River Water Settlements Act of 2023, H.R. 3977, the Navajo Water Supply Project Amendments Act -Gallup of 2023 and H.R. 8945, the Navajo Nation San José River Stream Water Rights Settlement Act of 2024.
She said she is pleased that the tribes in Arizona and New Mexico have come together to resolve their claims and are working together to pass these laws.
“I was a rookie lawyer 30 years ago when I had to litigate an appeal over whether Laguna had lost all of its water rights,” she told the subcommittee and tribal leaders. “So I can’t tell you how happy I am to be sitting here today with a bill that says we’re going to address these water rights.
Imagine, I’m not young, so that was a long time ago. This case had already been going on 10 years before and it was bitter. Now you’ve settled this… with people you’re also litigating with, but who are also your neighbors.”
Lastly, Chairman Nygren said that H.R. 6599 is a bill that would provide solutions to the Northwest New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act, the Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, and the Dispute Settlement Act Aamodt.
“The important thing about the Navajo-Gallup Pipeline is that time is of the essence because I know the deadline is the end of this year,” said Chairman Nygren. “We’re trying to extend the deadline at the same time as we’re really trying to offset some of the cost adjustments over the last few years due to inflation, the different types of projects that need to be put back into the new, modern water treatment plants. .”
He said extending the completion deadline to 2029 is critical due to the many thousands of Navajo and Gallup residents who depend on the water supply and to avoid accessing groundwater.
“This will alleviate some of that stress to move communities forward,” he said. “These are some of the critical things we’re going to address.”
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