A long-standing settlement between the federal government and Colorado’s Ute tribes will see millions of dollars in federal money headed the latter’s way, according to an announcement from the Biden administration on Thursday.

The administration is putting nearly $327 million into fulfilling Indian water rights claims.

The announcement said that 34 congressionally-enacted Indian water rights settlements were in place at the time a trillion-dollar infrastructure law was signed, including one in Colorado.

Of the amount, $207 million will come from the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” and another $120 million from the Reclamation Water Settlements Fund for agreements enacted prior to the infrastructure law, which would also apply to the Colorado settlement. Congress created the Reclamation Water Settlements Fund in 2009 and it will receive $120 million in mandatory funding annually from 2020 through 2029. 

The funding will support major water projects across the West to secure reliable water supplies for Tribes, the announcement said.

“Through the President’s Investing in America agenda, the Interior Department is continuing to uphold our trust responsibilities and ensure that Tribal communities receive the water resources they have long been promised,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “Reliable water is crucial to ensuring the health, safety and empowerment of Indigenous communities. I am grateful that Tribes, some of whom have been waiting for this funding for decades, are finally getting the resources they are owed.”

The Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute tribes in southwestern Colorado are slated to receive $3.4 million, tied to the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act of 1988. That act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan and sponsored in the U.S. House by then-Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, then an Ignacio Democrat.

The act was the culmination of three years of negotiations between the U.S. government, the state of Colorado, and the two Colorado Ute tribes over water rights in southwestern Colorado.

The 1988 settlement act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to supply both irrigation and municipal and industrial water to the tribes to come from the Animas-La Plata Project, which had been in the works since 1956. But that took longer than expected – the Animas-La Plata project wasn’t completed until 2013.

Last January, the Biden administration announced a total of $2.5 billion from the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” for more settlements under the the Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund.

“Indian water rights settlements help ensure that Tribal Nations have safe, reliable water supplies; improve environmental and health concerns on reservations; and enable economic growth,” the Interior Department said. “These settlements have the potential to end decades of controversy and contention among Tribal Nations and neighboring communities and promote cooperation in the management of water resources. Indian water rights settlements also promote community and economic development for regions surrounding Tribal communities, as conflicts are resolved and vital infrastructure is developed.”

According to an Oct. 13 Congressional Research Service report on Indian water rights settlements, the primary issue is quantification – that is, identifying the amount of water to which users hold rights within the existing systems of allocation in the West.

“However, quantification alone is often not sufficient to secure resources for tribes,” the report said. “Thus, the negotiation process frequently also involves provisions to construct water infrastructure that increases access to newly quantified resources.”

Since 1990, the Department of the Interior policy has been to resolve Indian water rights issues through settlements rather than litigation.

“These agreements allow tribes to quantify their water rights on paper, while also procuring access to water through infrastructure and other related expenses,” the report noted.