H.R. 1323 — Ohkay Owingeh Rio Chama Water Rights Settlement Act of 2025

This section provides the short title, the “Ohkay Owingeh Rio Chama Water Rights Settlement Act of 2025,” and sets out the table of contents for the Act.

This section establishes the purposes of the Act, which are to settle all claims to water rights in the Rio Chama Stream System in New Mexico for Ohkay Owingeh and the United States acting as trustee for Ohkay Owingeh; authorize, ratify, and confirm the settlement agreement to the extent it is consistent with the Act; direct the Secretary to execute the agreement and take any other actions necessary to carry it out; and authorize the funds necessary to implement the agreement and the Act.

This section defines key terms used throughout the Act, including the Rio Chama water rights adjudication in *State of New Mexico ex rel. State Engineer v. Aragon* (Civil No. 69–CV–07941–KWR/KK), the July 5, 2023, Ohkay Owingeh Rio Chama Water Rights Settlement Agreement and any amendments made to keep it consistent with the Act, and the Rio Chama Stream System (i.e., the Rio Chama surface water drainage basin in New Mexico as shown in Exhibit A to the Agreement). It also defines Ohkay Owingeh and Pueblo as the federally recognized Indian nation and body politic, the Secretary as the Secretary of the Interior, the State as New Mexico, and the City of Española as a municipal corporation of the State. This section further defines land and water-rights terms central to the settlement, including Pueblo Grant (the land confirmed by the 1858 federal patent to the Pueblo of San Juan), Pueblo Land (certain trust, owned, or later-acquired real property within the Rio Chama Stream System), Pueblo Water Rights (the Pueblo’s water rights identified in the Agreement and section 5 and confirmed in the Partial Final Judgment and Decree), and Partial Final Judgment and Decree (a final or interlocutory partial final judgment entered by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico that is substantially in the form described in the Agreement and from which no further appeal may be taken). It also defines bosque as a gallery forest along a riparian floodplain, Signatory Acequia as an acequia that signed the Agreement, and Trust Fund as the Ohkay Owingeh Water Rights Settlement Trust Fund established under section 6(a).

This section ratifies and confirms the Agreement between the United States and the Pueblo, except as modified by the Act, and authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to execute the Agreement and any conforming amendments or exhibits that require the Secretary’s signature. It also allows the Secretary to approve post-execution modifications that are consistent with the Act, unless the change would otherwise require congressional approval under section 2116 of the Revised Statutes (25 U.S.C. 177) or another applicable provision of federal law. This section directs the Secretary and the Pueblo to comply with the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and other applicable federal environmental laws in implementing the Agreement. As background, these requirements govern environmental review and species protection for federal and tribal projects. The Pueblo must prepare any necessary environmental documents, and the Secretary must independently evaluate them and remains responsible for their accuracy, scope, and contents. For any bosque restoration or improvement project funded under the Act, the Pueblo must coordinate with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to avoid interference with authorized federal projects under the Corps’ jurisdiction. This section specifies that the Secretary’s execution of the Agreement is not a major federal action under NEPA. It also provides that costs for the required compliance and coordination activities are paid from Trust Fund deposits, except that the Secretary remains responsible for costs associated with federal approval or other review of that compliance work and other inherently federal functions; however, Corps of Engineers review costs for bosque restoration or improvement projects are paid from the Trust Fund.

This section places the Pueblo Water Rights in trust with the United States on behalf of Ohkay Owingeh and bars loss of those rights through non-use, forfeiture, abandonment, or other operation of law. It also provides that state-law-based water rights acquired by Ohkay Owingeh, or by the United States on its behalf, after the date for inclusion in the Partial Final Judgment and Decree may not be forfeited, abandoned, or permanently alienated from the time they are acquired. This section authorizes Ohkay Owingeh to allocate, distribute, and lease the Pueblo Water Rights for use on Pueblo Land under the Agreement, this Act, and applicable federal law, including the Long-Term Leasing Act (25 U.S.C. 415 et seq.). It further authorizes the Pueblo to allocate, distribute, and lease those rights for use off Pueblo Land, subject to approval by the Secretary, and limits any such lease, including renewals, to 99 years. This section prohibits the Pueblo from permanently alienating any portion of the Pueblo Water Rights and provides that this Act’s authorization for allocation, distribution, leasing, or other arrangements satisfies any federal-law requirement for separate authorization of those actions. It also specifies that non-use of all or part of the Pueblo Water Rights by any water user does not result in forfeiture, abandonment, relinquishment, or other loss of those rights.

This section establishes the Ohkay Owingeh Water Rights Settlement Trust Fund, to remain available until expended, withdrawn, or reverted to the general fund of the Treasury, and directs the Secretary of the Interior to deposit into the fund the amounts made available under section 7(a), together with any investment earnings, including interest. It requires the Secretary to manage, invest, and distribute the fund consistent with the Secretary’s trust fund investment authority under the first section of the Act of June 24, 1938 (25 U.S.C. 162a), the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 4001 et seq.), and this section. The section makes the deposited amounts, including investment earnings, available to Ohkay Owingeh beginning on the Enforceability Date, subject to the section’s requirements, and authorizes up to $100 million of the trust fund, including earnings, to be used immediately for specified purposes: (1) diversions of surface water and groundwater to the Rio Chama bosque for restoration and maintenance; (2) the Pueblo’s contribution under the settlement agreement for improvements to senior acequias on Pueblo land supplying water to the Pueblo and non-Indians; (3) establishment and operation of the Pueblo’s water rights management administrative department; (4) acquisition of water rights; and (5) development of water infrastructure plans, environmental compliance documents, and water project engineering and construction. The section authorizes the Pueblo to withdraw trust fund amounts either through a Secretary-approved Tribal management plan under the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994 or through an approved expenditure plan. Under either mechanism, the Pueblo must use withdrawn amounts, and any investment earnings on those amounts, only for purposes authorized by the Act. The Secretary may take judicial and administrative action to enforce compliance with approved plans. The section also limits judicial review of the Secretary’s approval decisions to review available under the Administrative Procedure Act.

This section provides $745 million in mandatory appropriations to the Secretary of the Treasury for deposit in the Trust Fund, to remain available until expended, withdrawn, or reverted to the general fund of the Treasury. It also requires the appropriation to be adjusted upward or downward for ordinary fluctuations in construction costs, based on the Bureau of Reclamation Construction Cost Index-Composite Trend, and for unforeseen market volatility as determined by the Secretary. The indexing period for each increment of funding begins on June 1, 2023, and ends when the funds are deposited in the Trust Fund. This section also requires the State, under the Agreement, to contribute (1) $98.5 million, as adjusted for inflation, for Signatory Acequias ditch improvements, projects, and other purposes described in the Agreement; (2) $32 million, as adjusted for inflation, for City of Española water system improvement projects; and (3) $500,000, to be deposited in an interest-bearing account, to mitigate impairment to non-Pueblo domestic and livestock groundwater rights resulting from new Pueblo water use.

This section establishes the enforceability date for the Agreement as the date the Secretary publishes a Federal Register finding that six conditions have been met: the Agreement has been amended to conform with this Act, executed by all parties including the United States, approved by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico with a Partial Final Judgment and Decree entered, all amounts appropriated under section 7(a) have been appropriated and deposited in the Trust Fund, the State has provided or arranged the required funding under section 7(c)(1), 7(c)(2), and 7(c)(3) and deposited the section 7(c)(3) amount into the appropriate funding account, the State has enacted legislation allowing Pueblo Water Rights leases for up to 99 years (including renewals), and the waivers and releases under section 9 have been executed by Ohkay Owingeh and the Secretary.

This section requires Ohkay Owingeh and the United States, acting as trustee for Ohkay Owingeh, to waive and release pre-Enforceability Date claims in the Rio Chama Stream System in exchange for recognition of the Pueblo Water Rights and other benefits in the Agreement and this Act. The waiver covers (1) asserted or potential water-rights claims within the Rio Chama Stream System, except to the extent those rights are recognized in the Agreement and this Act, and (2) damages, losses, or injuries to water rights, including claims for interference with, diversion of, or taking of water rights and related injury to land, accrued on or before the Enforceability Date. This section also requires Ohkay Owingeh to waive and release claims against the United States, including any agency or employee, for water rights first arising before the Enforceability Date relating to 14 categories of claims in the Rio Chama Stream System, including claims for foregone benefits from non-Pueblo water use, failure to provide municipal, rural, or industrial water delivery, irrigation project construction and maintenance, dam safety improvements, bosque damage from Abiquiu Dam operations, litigation over water rights, aboriginal water rights, irrigation development failures, trespass on Pueblo lands, and the negotiation, execution, or adoption of the Agreement and this Act. This section makes the waivers and releases effective on the Enforceability Date. It also preserves, notwithstanding the waivers, claims for enforcement of recognized water rights and claims accruing after the Enforceability Date; water-quality claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, and implementing regulations; rights to water rights acquired after enactment; damage to land or natural resources not caused by loss of water or water rights; any rights not specifically waived; and claims for loss of water or water rights outside the Rio Chama Stream System.

This section provides that the benefits paid under the Act fully satisfy, replace, and substitute for any claim of Ohkay Owingeh against the United States that is waived and released under section 9(b). (Thus, Ohkay Owingeh may not seek additional compensation from the United States for the released claims.)

This section provides that the Act does not waive the sovereign immunity of the United States, does not quantify or diminish any land or water right or claim of any Indian Tribe, band, pueblo, or community other than Ohkay Owingeh, and does not affect any provision of law or regulation in effect on the day before enactment regarding pre-enforcement review of Federal environmental enforcement actions. It also establishes that, in the event of a conflict between the Agreement and the Act, the Act controls, and requires the Pueblo to hold the United States harmless from damages arising from the construction, operation, or maintenance of any bosque restoration or improvement project carried out with funds appropriated under the Act.

This section limits the federal government’s liability for any failure to carry out obligations or activities authorized by this Act, including obligations or activities under the Agreement, unless Congress expressly provides adequate appropriations to carry out the purposes of this Act. (Thus, if Congress does not enact sufficient appropriations, the United States would not be liable for nonperformance under the Act or the Agreement.)