A bill to help the
White Mountain Apache Tribe with a critical water project is making its way through Congress.
Congress ratified the
tribe's water rights settlement in 2010. But the tribe has been unable to complete the
drinking water system on the
Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona due to an uncertainty in the law about funding.
S.140 addresses the situation by authorizing the tribe to apply its settlement funds toward the project, also known as the
Miner Flat Dam and Reservoir. The bill already passed the
Senate on May 8.
“The federal government owes it to the White Mountain Apache Tribe to meet its obligation under the water rights settlement that Congress enacted in 2010,”
Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) , a co-sponsor of S.140, said a
press release at the time.
S.140 is now taking a step forward in the
House this week. The
Subcommitte on Water, Power and Oceans, which is part of the
Committee on Natural Resources will take testimony on the bill at a hearing on Thursday morning.
"The tribe’s current water sources and infrastructure have been and continue to be grossly inadequate to meet the current demands and needs of our reservation communities," Chairman Ronnie Lupe said at a
hearing on the water project in 2016. Lupe, 87, who has led the tribe for nine terms over the last 50 years, has said he won't seek re-election this year.
A witness list for the hearing on S.140 hasn't been posted online.
House Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans Notice:
Legislative Hearing on Trio of Water Bills
(November 2, 2017)
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