WASHINGTON (AP), For more than a decade, the Fort Apache Reservation residents in eastern Arizona have had miles of pipeline promised to bring clean water to their communities.
A one-time bonus to help implement the agreement could now be in your future.
Last month's federal infrastructure bill included $2.5 billion to Native American water rights settlements. This is a tool that tribes used to determine their rights to water, and to get federal funding to deliver it.
The federal government has not yet disclosed how the money would be divided up. The federal government has not disclosed how the money will be divided up. However, tribes that are involved in over 30 settlements, many of which are in the U.S. West including the White Mountain Apache from the Fort Apache Reservation, are eligible. They eagerly await details.
Heather Whiteman Runs Him, a native of the Crow Nation of Montana who directs the University of Arizona's Tribal Justice Clinic, said that these are "longstanding lapses in infrastructure building... to ensure that people in Indian Country do not get left behind".
For hundreds of thousands of people, access to clean water and basic sanitation facilities on tribal lands is still a problem. Funding for settlements comes from about $11 billion of infrastructure law that was sent to Indian Country to improve broadband coverage, fix roads, and provide basic necessities like water.
In 1908, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that tribes can have as much water as they need for establishing a permanent homeland. These rights extend back at least as far as any reservation has been around. Tribal water rights are often more senior than those of others in the West where there is fierce competition for the scarce resource.
Many tribes have settled instead of settling. Litigation can be costly and time-consuming. Negotiations can involve states, tribes, cities, private water users and local water districts. It can take many years, if not decades, to reach an agreement.
"What makes them complicated and sometimes very slow-moving is the potential ramifications for how tribal water rights get quantified and developed," stated Richard "Jim", White Mountain Apache Tribe's attorney General from 2010-2018.
Nearly 40 water rights agreements have been reached between tribes and some include multiple tribes. According to the Interior Department, 31 settlements are eligible for funding under the infrastructure bill.
Elizabeth Klein, senior counselor to Interior secretary, stated that "this money will really help me to fulfill my end of the deal."
In 2010, Congress approved the White Mountain Apache settlement. In exchange for federal money, the tribe was promised water delivery to tribal communities. The tribe received more that one-third the water it claimed to have from the two rivers flowing on the mountainous reservation.
According to the tribe, federal funding is needed for water storage and surface water treatment facilities as well as miles of pipelines so that residents have reliable drinking water.
Palmer explained that the projects were stalled due to cost overruns, technical issues, and lengthy negotiations for additional funding. Palmer said that this is typical for many tribal water rights settlements.
Palmer, White Mountain Apache, said that while there is a lot of money written down, it's very, very difficult to access the money and make it work... without an incredible amount of bureaucracy.
Palmer explained that residents on the reservation continue to rely on wells that are too pumped or drink water potentially contaminated by heavy metals.
Jay Weiner, an attorney who is also an expert in Native American water law, stated that Congress' fragmented approach to funding tribal water rights settlements makes the $2.5 Billion infrastructure deal so important.
He said, "It sort of clears out the decks on these anual funding cycles so there is less competition for... limited funds."
The Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in America, said that it will receive funding from the infrastructure law to fund a settlement it reached with Utah in 2020 for water in Colorado River basin.
Congress approved $210 million to fund water infrastructure and agricultural conservation projects that will bring running water to Utah's side of the reservation. However, lawmakers didn't provide all funding.
Residents and experts in public health are worried about groundwater contamination by uranium or arsenic. The tribe reported that hundreds of homes in Utah, which is approximately 40% of all residents, do not have running water or sanitation facilities.
The 27,000-square-mile (70,000-square-kilometer) reservation is larger than West Virginia and also stretches into Arizona and New Mexico. The landscape is scattered with homes, which makes it difficult to transport water.
Tribes believe that the quicker they receive funding, the sooner they will be able to start long-anticipated water projects.
Weiner stated, "Ultimately, it's about allowing and faciliting tribes to put their water into use. Which is the point for the whole exercise."
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