Sec. 2. Findings
580 words·~3 min read·
/bill/117/hr/9633/ih/section-2·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds as follows: The entire American West and Southwest are facing forecasts of prolonged droughts that will leave States and Tribes facing major water shortages. Recent periods of drought in the American West have also occurred with higher temperatures and reduced snowpack and led to what climate scientists recently concluded was possibly the most severe drought in over 1,200 years. The Colorado River has been under drought conditions since 2000, most recently denoted as the most endangered river in the United States, and the State of Arizona is in a mega-drought according to climate scientists.
The Secretary manages the lower Colorado River system in accordance with Federal law including— the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928; the 1963 Decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Arizona v. California; the 2006 Consolidated Decree of the U.S. Supreme Court in Arizona v. California; the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968; the Criteria for Coordinated Long-Range Operation of Colorado River Reservoirs Pursuant to the Colorado River Basin Project Act of September 30, 1968; the Grand Canyon Protection Act of 1992; the 2007 Interim Guidelines; and other applicable provisions of Federal law.
The 2007 Interim Guidelines will expire in 2026. The 7 States that are within the Colorado River basin are re-negotiating these guidelines with the Federal Government to take account of current forecasts of available supply from the Colorado River, which is dramatically reduced from what it had been when the guidelines were adopted in 2007. Colorado River water that had been stored in Lake Powell and Lake Mead has been gradually used up as the drought has continued. Conservation of water supplies is for the foreseeable future the only viable way to address water shortage and water supplies from the Colorado River.
While conservation is the current focus to address the mega-drought in the State of Arizona, additional efforts should be made now to identify future long-term water supplies to offset the reduced supplies available from the Colorado River and other natural rivers and streams flowing in the State. Congress recognizes that there are 22 Tribes in the State of Arizona. Of those Tribes, some have judicially decreed water entitlements decreed to them through various State and Federal court decrees.
Other Arizona Tribes have claims pending for additional water entitlements, many of which will also result in judicially decreed Tribal entitlements. These judicially decreed Tribal entitlements to water are currently not available as a potential water supply to offset the reduced supplies available from the Colorado River and other natural rivers and streams flowing in the State. Congress further recognizes that Arizona Tribes that hold judicially decreed rights to water from the Colorado River or other rivers and streams flowing in Arizona should be able to enter into lease or exchange agreements and storage agreements to make such decreed entitlements potentially available to other water users in the State as part of a long-term alternative supply.
Making such judicially decreed Tribal water supplies available as a long-term water supply should be considered and implemented as part of a long-term strategy for addressing the mega-drought in the Southwest, and should be considered as part of the ongoing basin State re-negotiation of the 2007 Interim Guidelines. In the meantime, to address the current crisis, all parties with excess supplies of water should consider ways of conserving those supplies through existing Federal and State programs that provide for the conservation of such supplies for the benefit of both Lake Mead and Lake Powell.