Sponsors (2)
The bill secures significant, long‑term water supplies, infrastructure funding, and legal certainty for the Yavapai‑Apache Nation and nearby communities—but does so by committing substantial federal funds, imposing enforceability conditions and waivers that limit future claims and some sovereign and individual rights, while shifting ongoing costs and some oversight responsibilities onto the Tribe, local users, and federal agencies.
Members of the Yavapai‑Apache Nation and nearby rural communities will receive funded water infrastructure (Cragin‑Verde pipeline, Túńlįíníchoh project, drinking water and wastewater systems, storage) that materially improves water access and quality.
The Act establishes a final, statutory settlement that defines and resolves many Verde/Colorado River claims, reducing litigation risk and giving the Nation and other users legal certainty about water rights and obligations.
The Yavapai‑Apache Nation gains federally recognized, trust‑held water rights and specific CAP entitlements (including storage and leasing authority within Arizona), protecting the Nation's long‑term water supply and management flexibility.
The Yavapai‑Apache Nation (except certain Allottees) waives broad past, present, and many future water‑rights and injury claims, significantly limiting the Nation's and members' ability to seek future compensation or remedies for water harms.
The Act authorizes large federal outlays (hundreds of millions) to fund projects and settlements, increasing taxpayer exposure and federal budgetary commitments without explicit offsets.
To make the settlement enforceable the Nation must accept limits (including partial waivers of sovereign immunity) and some individuals receive no new individual water rights on tribal land, constraining tribal sovereignty and certain members' remedies.
Based on analysis of 32 sections of legislative text.
Ratifies a Yavapai‑Apache Nation water‑rights settlement, funds and directs construction of the Cragin‑Verde Pipeline and YAN drinking‑water system, takes parcels into trust, and creates a tribal trust fund.
Official title: To approve the settlement of water rights claims of the Yavapai-Apache Nation in the State of Arizona, to authorize construction of a water project relating to those water rights claims, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 26, 2025 by Eli Crane · Last progress December 26, 2025
This bill implements a negotiated water-rights settlement with the Yavapai-Apache Nation (YAN), provides and indexes federal funding to build the Túńlįįníchoh Water Infrastructure Project (Cragin‑Verde Pipeline and YAN Drinking Water System), places specified lands into trust for the Nation, creates a YAN Water Settlement Trust Fund with subaccounts, and requires broad waivers and releases of past and future water claims by the Nation (with narrow preserved exceptions). It conditions the settlement and release on a set of findings the Secretary must publish (the Act’s Enforceability Date), and includes detailed terms for CAP water contracts, leasing, project operation, environmental compliance, monitoring, and transfer of O&M responsibilities.