News Release Archive

Reclamation provides second allocation of $120 million for tribal water settlements

Funding advances water reliability and delivery projects for tribal communities

Media Contact: Robert Manning, , rmanning@usbr.gov

For Release: January 19, 2021

Construction on the Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project. WASHINGTON – Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman initiated the second annual allocation of $120 million from the Reclamation Water Settlements Fund for Indian water rights settlements. The allocation will provide important funding for the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project and the Aamodt Litigation Settlement Agreement in New Mexico and the Blackfeet Water Rights Settlement in Montana.

“Reclamation is investing in vital water infrastructure for tribal communities that will serve them for generations,” said Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Burman. “Reclamation is focused on meeting our Indian water rights settlement commitments and helping to fulfill the Department of the Interior’s Indian trust responsibilities.”

Specific amounts under this allocation include:

Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project - $100 million. The Navajo Gallup Water Supply project is a key element of the Navajo Nation Water Rights Settlement on the San Juan River in New Mexico. Construction of the project is well underway. When fully complete, the project will provide reliable municipal, industrial, and domestic water supplies to 43 chapters of the Navajo Nation, the city of Gallup, New Mexico, the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, and the southwest portion of the Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation.

Aamodt Litigation Settlement - $5 million. Title VI of the Claims Resolution Act of 2010 authorizes the Aamodt Litigation Settlement Agreement, construction of the Pojoaque Basin Regional Water System and acquisition of water rights. Once complete, the PBRWS will consist of diversion works, a treatment plant, pipelines, storage tanks, pumping plants, and other facilities necessary to divert up to 4,000 acre-feet of water for consumptive use by the Pueblos of Nambé, Pojoaque, Tesuque, and San Ildefonso, as well as Santa Fe County. The federal cost ceiling was increased and the settlement date extended by four years in the Fiscal Year 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act.

Blackfeet Settlement - $15 million. Under the “Blackfeet Water Rights Settlement Act,” Reclamation will plan, design and construct the Blackfeet Regional Water System in northwestern Montana, which at full buildout will serve an estimated 25,000 reservation residents in the communities of Browning, Heart Butte, Babb, East Glacier and Blackfoot, as well as rural farms and ranches.

This allocation is in accordance with the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-11), which established the Reclamation Water Settlements Fund, detailed how funding is to be deposited into the fund, and described the way the fund is to be expended.

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