Water for Scottsdale, water for endangered species, water for pastures and crops and vindication for the people of Geronimo -- all these will flow from a key Arizona Indian water-rights settlement.
The San Carlos Apache settlement will provide the impoverished east-central Arizona tribe with rights to nearly 68,000 acre-feet of water -- enough to serve 300,000 people a year. And, it will free more than $50 million in economic development funds approved by the Legislature and Congress nearly seven years ago.The tribes' water rights have been in limbo since its reservation was established in 1871.
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said the pact sets the stage for the settlement of other Indian water-rights claims, including the giant Gila River General Stream Adjudication, which would settle nearly 65,000 water-rights claims across central and southern Arizona.
Babbitt, a former Arizona governor, said he is hoping legislation will be introduced in Congress by the end of this year to resolve the Gila River claims, which were first filed in 1974.
"We can now move forward and quickly to settle the remaining water-rights disputes," Babbitt told nearly 50 state, federal, tribal, city and farming representatives at a signing ceremony in downtown Phoenix only hours before congressional authorization for the San Carlos Apache was set to expire.
For Velasquez W. Sneezy Sr., the tribe's vice chairman, signing the settlement last month was a symbolic end to more than a century of conflicts with Anglo culture.
"I believe this settlement proves that the San Carlos Apache people still have the spirit of the warrior. This victory is going to motivate our younger people . . . to plan for the future," Sneezy said of his 12,000-member tribe, whose per-capita income is less than $10,000 a year.
David Hays, recently nominated by President Clinton as deputy secretary of the Interior, called the signing "an end to the war" between the San Carlos Apaches and other water users.
However, the pact does not settle a continuing dispute over water between the San Carlos Apaches and Phelps Dodge Corp., which leases tribal water for its giant copper mine at Morenci.
And it comes during the worst recorded drought in tribal history. San Carlos Lake is predicted to go dry by May, unless the state and federal government intervenes.
The San Carlos Apache tribal council three weeks ago petitioned Gov. Jane Hull to declare the dwindling lake a disaster area, but so far the governor has not acted.
Tribal attorney Joe Sparks said nearly 4 million pounds of fish are at risk, as well as feeding grounds for three nesting pairs of bald eagles and two pairs of Peregrine falcons. The lake is a world-class sports fishing destination.
The agreement must be approved by Dec. 31 by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Susan K. Bolton. It would then become part of an overall settlement of disputes over Gila River water dating to 1974.
Once it is approved by the courts, the tribe plans to move forward with its plans to lease water to Scottsdale and Carefree.
Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana said water from the tribe will ensure Scottsdale's ability to add an additional 100,000 residents in the coming decades. The city's population currently is nearing 200,000.
Money from the lease to the high-end northeast valley cities will provide the tribe with the money it needs to buy its allocation of Colorado River water from the Central Arizona Project.
Because there is no way to deliver that CAP water to the reservation, Sparks said, one possible use would be to substitute it for water the San Carlos Irrigation District currently receives from San Carlos Lake.
If the water in the lake does not have to be sent downstream for agriculture, the tribe would be able to store it for recreation, fishing and wildlife uses, Sparks said.
Also, once the court approved the settlement, it would enable the tribe to begin using a $50 million economic development fund.
Among the tribe's plans for the money are long-term economic and environmental restoration efforts, including: new pasture and crop lands; nurseries of trees to replant forests devastated by runaway logging; cold-water fisheries and hatcheries for commercial fish; and the re-introduction of endangered native Apache and Gila trout.