Transcript

Getches: Most groundwater is connected to a stream underground

It seems to me that the tribal rights to groundwater are part of the same package as reserved rights to flowing streams. Most groundwater is connected to a surface stream underground, and where you have that hydrologic connection, it would be artificial to say that the rights in the stream didn't continue to the groundwater. I think that most courts have recognized that, including a recent Arizona State Supreme Court decision. The US Supreme Court has said as much in a case not involving Indian water rights but involving a national monument out in Death Valley where ranchers' pumping was drawing down a limestone cavern and jeopardizing the fish that that national monument was set aside for. So I do not think that there is going to be much question about that. As far as funding, yes, you need more funding for all kinds of reserved rights settlements. When you think about this, there are close to 500 tribes in the United States. We've had a little more than a dozen water rights settlements. And we would have more, if we had the financing available: one, to get the negotiations done, and secondly, to lubricate the settlement and to provide for all of the interests that are affected by the settlement to be treated with justice.

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