A coalition of tribes, water officials and water board members from the Lower Basin of the Colorado River came to the Colorado River Water Users Association meeting last week on a mission: overcome resistance by Upper Basin states to passing key water rights settlement legislation before Congress adjourns later this month. The Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act would ratify an agreement reached after nearly six decades of negotiation and litigation over portions of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers and groundwater. The settlement act would also fund the infrastructure to bring safe and reliable water to the Navajo Nation and the Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes, which most Arizonans take for granted.

Other Colorado River articles:

• Los Angeles Times: ‘Zero progress’: Western states at impasse in talks on Colorado River water shortages
• Los Angeles Times: Where California stands in the multistate negotiations over the Colorado River
• Western Farm Progress: What happened in Vegas? Nothing, unfortunately
• Pagosa Daily Post: Opinion: Save the Colorado: Elon Musk gets the Gross Dam fiasco exactly wrong
• Congressman John Neguse news release: Assistant Leader Neguse secures extension of Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins endangered fish recovery programs in Annual Defense Bill
• Lake County Record-Bee: Opinion: Newsom has not let California get bullied
• U.S. Department of Interior: President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda supports $65 million investment to fulfill Indian Water Rights Settlements