House lawmakers should move quickly to adopt nine new water settlements for Native American tribes across the West, along with updates to a handful of others, or risk seeing the $12 billion price tag grow even larger, a subcommittee chair warned Tuesday.
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries reviewed a dozen bills that would enact new agreements or update existing settlements for tribal water resources across Arizona, California, New Mexico and Montana.
“Few issues in the American West are as pressing or vexing as the escalating water crisis,” subcommittee Chair Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) said. “As the water in the West continues to dry up and become more and more dear, tribal water issues are becoming more and more critical.”
Bentz, who noted the settlements would cost a combined $12 billion for infrastructure, pressed Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Commissioner David Palumbo on whether diminished water supplies in the arid region could result in increased prices, particularly payments made to water rights owners when flows must be cut.
