January 2025
Yavapai-Apache Nation Water Rights Settlement Agreement
Key points
• Settles the outstanding legal claims of the YavapaiApache Nation (the Nation) to various water sources in the Verde River system.
• Secures federal funding for the Nation to construct water infrastructure projects to improve its water supply.
• Improves sustainable management of the Verde River and local groundwater supplies by importing water from outside the Verde River watershed.
• Provides the Nation with access to its Colorado River water via an exchange with the Salt River Project (SRP).
• Establishes a culturally important instream flow right for the Nation to help ensure a flowing Verde River.
• Provides legal clarity regarding ownership and access to water supplies in the Verde River watershed by resolving the Nation’s significant water rights claims in the Gila River Adjudication.
Verde Canyon in autumn
Location of the Yavapai-Apache Nation
Source: Yavapai-Apache Nation, http://itcaonline.com/?page_id=16 and Apple Maps
Camp Verde
Background
On June 26, 2024, the Yavapai-Apache Nation1 unanimously approved the YavapaiApache Nation Water Rights Settlement Agreement (the Agreement), which is a proposed agreement to settle the longstanding water rights claims of the Nation in the Verde Valley located in central Arizona.
An Indian water rights settlement is a voluntary, multi-party agreement through which Tribal and non-tribal entities quantify Tribal, and sometimes non-tribal, water rights, waive and release certain types of claims, such as environmental or other injury claims, and fund collaborative water infrastructure projects.
An Indian water rights settlement may contain a variety of other terms important to the parties, for example, regulating use of shared groundwater or authorizing the Tribe to lease its water resources. Approval and implementation of Indian water rights settlements requires federal action—often in the form of congressional approval.
As with other settlements, an Indian water rights settlement is a binding legal agreement adopted by parties before or during court proceedings, defining specific negotiated terms and obligations that all parties accept to officially end a dispute. Under the federal McCarran Amendment, Indian water rights cases are heard in state court, and Indian water rights settlements are approved by the state court that is designated to adjudicate such water rights.
Parties to the Agreement
Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAP)
City of Cottonwood
Salt River Project
State of Arizona
Town of Camp Verde
Town of Clarkdale
United States
Yavapai-Apache Nation
1 The Yavapai-Apache Nation is a federally recognized Indian Tribe located in central Arizona along the Verde River. The Nation consists of Yavapai and Apache Tribal members from five different “districts” of the Yavapai-Apache Reservation: The Middle Verde, Montezuma, Rimrock, Camp Verde and Clarkdale Districts.
A tree on the banks of the Verde River
Because the Verde River is located within the Gila River watershed, any legal claim to the river will be determined in the General Adjudication of All Rights to Use Water in the Gila River System and Source (the Gila Adjudication), a legal proceeding to determine all of the surface water rights in the Gila River system in Arizona. The Gila Adjudication commenced in 1974 and involves thousands of claims to the waters of the Gila River and its tributaries, including the Salt, Verde, Agua Fria, Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers. The Yavapai-Apache Nation has been a party in these proceedings since the mid-1980s. If approved by Congress, the Agreement will remove the Nation from active participation in the adjudication (beyond what is agreed to within the settlement) and allow the Gila Adjudication court to address the remaining claims in the adjudication.
Subwatersheds of the Gila River watershed
The Nation’s water rights claims are located in the Verde Valley.
Source: https://www.azwater.gov/sites/default/files/2024-09/Verde%20River%20Watersheds%20and%20Subwatersheds.pdf
What water sources are involved?
The proposed settlement will confirm water rights for the Nation to a number of sources:
Water Source
Annual Diversion
Verde River Water 1,593.76 acre-feet (AF)2 Groundwater 684.48 AF
C.C. Cragin Reservoir Water 3,410.26 AF
1980 Contract for Colorado River Water 1,200 AF
Effluent No limit
In addition to Verde River surface water and groundwater sources, the Nation would receive water from the C.C. Cragin Reservoir, pictured below, which is situated on the Mogollon Rim within the Little Colorado River watershed, north of the City of Payson. C.C. Cragin Reservoir currently supplies water to SRP and the Town of Payson via a trans-river diversion system. Through the settlement, the Nation will also be able to utilize its 1980 contract for Colorado River water either via exchange with SRP or by offering it for lease within specific areas in the state.
Cragin Dam and Reservoir. Credit: SRP, https://www.srpnet.com/grid-water-management/water-management/lakes/cc-cragin-reservoir
Why is the Yavapai-Apache Nation Water Rights Settlement Agreement important?
It would resolve the Nation’s longstanding water rights claims and secure much-needed funding for regional water infrastructure projects. The Agreement includes federal funding for a number of projects benefitting the Nation’s members and potentially other local communities. The Yavapai-Apache Nation Water Rights Settlement Act, introduced last summer, proposed $1.039 billion in federal funding for the Tribe to build and maintain essential water infrastructure, including the Cragin-Verde Pipeline Project and the Yavapai-Apache Nation Drinking Water System Project, a water treatment facility and a treated water distribution system, together known as the Tú ńlįįníchoh Water Infrastructure Project or “TWIP”.
Project
Cragin-Verde Pipeline Project Construction
YAN Drinking Water System Project + Water Distribution System
YAN Water Settlement Trust Fund
Total
Funding Amount
$731.59 million
$152.49 million
$156 million
$1.039 billion
It would authorize the Yavapai-Apache Nation to lease or exchange its Colorado River water. In 1980, the Nation received an allocation of 1,200 acre-feet per year of Colorado River water from the Secretary of the Interior, but the Nation has never been able to access this water physically since there is no pipeline from the Colorado River to the Verde Valley. The proposed settlement agreement would enable the Nation either to lease its Colorado River water for use within six Arizona counties3 or to exchange it with SRP. In the case of an exchange, SRP would deliver up to 1,200 acre-feet of its C.C. Cragin Reservoir water to the Nation (or to local Verde Valley communities under agreements with the Nation) via the proposed Cragin-Verde Pipeline Project, essentially augmenting the Nation’s Verde River supplies with Little Colorado River water, and the Nation would deliver up to 1,200 acre-feet of its Colorado River water to SRP through the CAP-SRP interconnect near Phoenix.
It would protect the Verde River flows and support the cultural, religious and traditional uses of the river for the Yavapai and Apache people. The proposed settlement also recognizes the importance of the continued natural flows within the Verde River that are critical to the cultural practices and lifeways of the Yavapai and Apache peoples. Through the Agreement, the Nation will obtain a state-based instream flow right to protect base flows and flood flows in the Verde River on the reservation for cultural, religious and traditional uses.
3 The proposed settlement agreement provides the Yavapai-Apache Nation the option to enter into contracts or options to lease or to exchange Colorado River water in Coconino, Gila, Maricopa, Pinal, Pima and Yavapai counties as listed in Section 6.4 of the agreement.
It would enhance water resilience in the Verde Valley. An important aspect of the proposed settlement agreement is the establishment of separate water budgets for the Nation, as well as the Town of Clarkdale, the Town of Camp Verde and the City of Cottonwood, that are designed to foster sustainable growth and water use in the Verde Valley. These water budgets are specific to each community and include supplies for growth but recognize the importance of preserving shared groundwater and surface water supplies. Annual maximum diversions from the Verde River and from nearby wells are established alongside specific mitigation provisions for any use above the allowed water budgets.4 However, the use of reclaimed water does not count against these water budgets. This is intended to promote the use of renewable reclaimed water supplies over direct Verde River diversions or groundwater pumping.
Additionally, local towns and the Nation have agreed to recognize the impact that development of future wells might have on each other’s existing wells, the river and shared groundwater supplies. The Agreement includes terms to jointly analyze these impacts and to prevent or mitigate them. The parties have also agreed to implement water conservation measures such as the use of native and drought-tolerant landscaping and water-efficient plumbing fixtures. Altogether, these measures are intended to provide proactive water management and cooperation among neighboring governments in the Verde Valley.
The Agreement also provides an opportunity for Verde Valley municipalities to reduce their reliance on water withdrawn from wells by contracting for the Nation’s water imported through the proposed Cragin-Verde pipeline through separate agreements with the Nation. The heavy concentration of wells adjacent to the Verde River is cited as a leading cause of depleted flows in the river. Importing an alternative water supply could help maintain flows.
The Subflow Zone
Subflow is underground water (subsurface flow) that contributes to a river’s baseflow. In Arizona, subflow is subject to the same laws and rules as other surface water, namely, the doctrine of prior appropriation which recognizes water rights in order of seniority.
In the Agreement, some parties have agreed not to drill new wells that would divert water from the Verde River subflow zone. The Yavapai-Apache Nation can construct new wells in the subflow zone but has agreed to an overall cap on groundwater use.
4 Town of Camp Verde, Agreement Among the Yavapai-Apache Nation, the United States, and the Town Of Camp Verde (2024), https://www.campverde.az.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/13570/638563138133000000.
Montezuma’s Well, Camp Verde, Arizona
What’s next?
For the Agreement to take effect, Congress must approve it and authorize funding for the Cragin-Verde Pipeline Project and the other water infrastructure projects detailed in the settlement. If Congress approves the settlement, the parties will conform the settlement agreement and the Gila River Adjudication court must also finalize the settlement through a state judicial decree.
Success in Congress is never guaranteed: Congress may decline to fully fund the Agreement or propose changes to key terms for further consideration by the parties. Federal legislation to approve and fund the settlement was introduced into Congress in July 2024, however, no vote occurred during the 118th Congress. The settlement may be re-introduced in a future session.
Stay tuned to the Kyl Center’s updates through our listserv at https://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/kyl-center-water-policy for new developments.
Acknowledgements
Author: Cora Tso
Contributors/editors: Sarah Porter and Kathryn Sorensen
This project is co-sponsored by the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative, a multi-year partnership with the state led by Arizona State University’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory in collaboration with the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.
Horse crosses the Verde River