ST. GEORGE — More than $39 million has been allocated to continue fulfilling the Navajo Utah Water Settlement, funding which was secured by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) during negotiations of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
During the negotiations, Romney secured $214 million to fully fund the Navajo Utah Water Rights Settlement Act — legislation to bring running water to the nearly 40% of Utah’s Navajo Nation who lack it, according to a news release.
The legislation was introduced by Romney in 2019, authorized by Congress in 2020 and fully funded by the bipartisan infrastructure bill in 2021.
“For decades, Utah’s leaders worked to find a solution to bring running water and wastewater facilities to Navajo Nation in Utah, and during negotiations of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, we were finally able to get it across the finish line,” Romney said in the news release. “I was proud to have helped make good on a longstanding promise by the federal government to Utah’s Navajos, and I appreciate the leadership of the many people over the years who have been strong advocates of these efforts.”
The Navajo Utah Water Rights Settlement Act, which the news release said is the result of decades of negotiation, recognizes and protects the reserved water rights of Navajo Nation and will bring clean drinking water to the Navajo people in Utah.
As previously reported in St. George News, an agreement that recognizes and protects the reserved water rights of the Navajo Nation and will help bring clean drinking water to the Navajo people in Utah was finalized May 27, 2022, by government and tribe officials. The settlement recognizes a reserved water right of 81,500 acre-feet for current and future water use within the Navajo Nation in Utah.
And the federal government will pay Navajo Nation over $210 million and the state of Utah will contribute $8 million toward drinking water infrastructure on Navajo Nation, the news release said.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act invests more than $13 billion directly in Tribal communities across the country and makes Tribal communities eligible for billions more in much-needed investments.
That includes $2.5 billion to implement the Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund, which will help deliver long-promised water resources to Tribes, certainty to all their non-Indian neighbors, and a solid foundation for future economic development for entire communities dependent on common water resources.