An act relating to the water rights of the Ak-Chin Indian Community.
PL 98-530 (H.R.6206), enacted 10/19/1984

98 STAT. 2698 
PUBLIC LAW 98-530—OCT. 19, 1984 
Public Law 98-530 
98th Congress 
An Act 
Oct. 19 1984 
Relating to the water rights of the Ak-Chin Indian Community. 
[H.R. 6206] 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled. 
SECTION 1. The Congress hereby finds and declares that— 
(1) the Department of the Interior and the Ak-Chin Indian 
Community executed on September 23, 1983, an agreement 
entitled "Agreement in Principle for Revised Ak-Chin Water 
Settlement", wherein the parties agreed to revisions of the Act 
of July 28,1978 (Public Law 95-328; 92 Stat. 409); 
(2) the main purpose of the Agreement in Principle is to 
accomplish a prompt and economical fulfillment of the intent of 
that Act; 
92 Stat. 411. 
(3) section 3 of that Act requires that the Secretary of the 
Interior (hereinafter referred to as the "Secretary") as soon as 
possible but not later than twenty-five years after the date of 
the enactment of that Act, deliver to the Ak-Chin Indian Reser-
vation a permanent supply of water to fulfill the Ak-Chin 
Indian Community's entitlement to eighty-five thousand acre-
feet of water; 
92 Stat. 409. 
(4) section 2 of that Act requires that the Secretary deliver an 
interim supply of water until the permanent supply is acquired 
and delivered to the Reservation; 
(5) the Secretary proposed to the Community, subject to the 
approval of Congress, to deliver the permanent supply not later 
than January 1,1988, except that the Community, as a consider-
ation, agree to certain modifications in the quantities of water 
to be delivered as the permanent supply and to release him 
from his obligation to deliver an interim supply; 
(6) in order to establish January 1, 1988, as the date certain 
for the delivery of a permanent supply, the Community agreed 
to— 
(A) the reduced deliveries of the permanent supply under 
certain conditions; 
(B) the Secretary's proposals regarding the interim 
supply; and 
(C) certain other proposals of the Secretary; 
and executed the Agreement in Principle; and 
(7) the provisions contained in this Act conform to the pur-
poses of that Agreement and the consideration embodied in it. 
Central Arizona 
SEC. 2. (a) As soon as possible but not later than January 1, 1988, 
Project. 
the Secretary shall deliver annually a permanent water supply from 
the main project works of the Central Arizona Project to the south-
east corner of the Ak-Chin Indian Reservation of not less than 
seventy-five thousand acre-feet of surface water suitable for agricul-
tural use except as otherwise provided under subsections (b) and (c). 
(b) In any year in which sufficient surface water is available, the 
Secretary shall deliver such additional quantity of water as is 
PUBLIC LAW 98-530—OCT. 19, 1984 
98 STAT. 2699 
requested by the Community not to exceed ten thousand acre-feet. 
The Secretary shall be required to carry out the obligation referred 
to in this subsection only if he determines that there is sufficient 
capacity available in the main project works of the Central Arizona 
Project to deliver such additional quantity. 
(c) In time of shortage, if the aggregate supply of water referred to 
in subsection (f) is not sufficient to deliver seventy-five thousand 
acre-feet, the Secretary may deliver a lesser quantity but in no event 
less than seventy-two thousand acre-feet. For the purposes of this 
Act, the term "time of shortage" means a calendar year for which 
the Secretary determines that a shortage exists pursuant to section 
301(b) of the Colorado River Basin Project Act of September 30,1968 
(Public Law 90-537), such that there is not sufficient Central 43 USC1501. 
Arizona Project water in that year to supply up to a limit of three 
hundred nine thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight acre-feet of 
water for Indian uses, and up to a limit of five hundred ten thousand 
acre-feet of water for non-Indian municipal and industrial uses. 
(d) The Secretary shall be deemed to have satisfied his obligation 
to deliver water under this section only if such water is delivered at 
flow rates which meet the seasonal requirements for agricultural 
use on the Reservation. Such rates shall not exceed three hundred 
cubic feet per second. 
(e) To meet the obligations of the Secretary to deliver water under 
this Act, the Secretary shall design, construct, operate, maintain, 
and replace, at no cost to the Community, such facilities, including 
any aqueduct and appurtenant pumping facilities, powerplants and 
electric power transmission facilities, which may be necessary. 
(f) The water supply referred to in subsections (a) and (c) shall 
consist of the aggregate of the following— 
(1) First, a permanent supply of no more or less than fifty 
thousand acre-feet of surface water per annum to be diverted 
from the Colorado River of the three hundred thousand acre-
feet of water heretofore authorized by the Act of July 30, 1947 
(61 Stat. 628), for beneficial consumptive use on lands of the 
Yuma Mesa Division of the Gila Project. Water referred to in 
this paragraph and in subsection (g)(1) shall have equal priority. 
Furthermore, these provisions shall not affect the relative prior-
ities among themselves of water users in Arizona, Nevada, and 
California which are senior to diversions for the Central 
Arizona Project as fully set out in section 3010)) of Public Law 
90-537. 
43 use 1501. 
(2) Such Central Arizona Project water allocated to the Com-
munity and referred to in the "Notice of Final Water Allocations 
to Indians and non-Indian Water Users and Related Decisions" 
(48 Fed. Reg. 12446, March 24, 1983) as is necessary to 
fulfill the Secretary's water delivery obligations. Delivery of 
such Central Arizona Project water shall be as provided in the 
December 11, 1980, Central Arizona Project water delivery 
contract between the United States and the Ak-Chin Indian 
Community, except as otherwise provided by this Act and any 
contract executed pursuant to this Act. 
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, nothing in para-
graph (1) of this subsection shall enlarge or diminish the authority 
of the Secretary under existing law. Nothing in section 4 or any 
other provision of this Act shall reduce the Secretary's obligation to 
deliver to the Ak-Chin Reservation a permanent supply of fifty 
98 STAT. 2700 
PUBLIC LAW 98-530—OCT. 19, 1984 
Gila Project. 
Contracts with 
U.S. 
thousand acre-feet of surface water per annum as well as the water 
referred to in paragraph (2) of this subsection. 
(g)(1) The limitation in the first section of the Act of July 30, 1947 
(61 Stat. 628) on the annual beneficial consumptive use in the Yuma 
Mesa Division of the Gila Project of no more than three hundred 
thousand acre-feet of Colorado River water shall be deemed to be a 
limitation of no more than two hundred and fifty thousand acre-feet, 
effective as provided in section 4 of this Act. 
(2) Such two hundred and fifty thousand acre-feet of water shall 
not be used to irrigate more than thirty-seven thousand one hun-
dred and eighty-seven acres of land in the Yuma Mesa Division, 
specifically: six thousand five hundred and eighty-seven acres in the 
North Gila Valley Irrigation District; ten thousand six hundred 
acres in the Yuma Irrigation District; and twenty thousand acres in 
the Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage District. Additional land in 
the Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage District may be irrigated if 
there is a corresponding reduction in the irrigated acreage in the 
other districts so that at no time are more than thirty-seven thou-
sand one hundred and eighty-seven acres being irrigated in the 
Yuma Mesa Division. 
(3) Pursuant to appropriations, the Secretary shall pay— 
(A) $5,400,00(5 to the Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage 
District for the purpose of replacement, rehabilitation, and 
repair of the water delivery system within the Yuma Mesa 
Irrigation and Drainage District, including water pumping 
TOi-»i 1 i ^ i o c * 
Q n i l 
(B) $2,000,000 to the Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage 
District, $1,000,000 to the Yuma Irrigation District, and 
$1,000,000 to the North Gila Valley Irrigation District, for the 
purpose of on-farm and district water conservation and drain-
age measures. 
Such funds shall not be used as non-Federal contributions in connec-
tion with any other Federal programs requiring cost-sharing. None 
of the payments to be made by the Secretary to said districts under 
this subsection shall be treated as supplemental or additional bene-
fits or reimbursable to the United States. 
(4) The Secretary is authorized and directed to amend the repay-
ment contracts, as amended, between the United States and said 
districts to conform to the provisions of this Act and to provide that 
all remaining repayment obligations owing to the United States on 
the date of the enactment of this Act are discharged. The Secretary 
is authorized at the request of the districts or any one of them to 
issue a certificate acknowledging that the lands in the requesting 
district are free of the ownership and full cost pricing provisions of 
Federal reclamation law. Such certificate shall be in a form suitable 
for entry in the land records of Yuma County, Arizona. Amend-
ments to the districts' contracts relating to items other than those 
covered by this Act shall not be made without the consent of the 
irrigation districts. 
(5) The Secretary shall be required to carry out his obligations in 
paragraphs (3) and (4) only if the Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drain-
age District, the North Gila Valley Irrigation District, and the 
Yuma Irrigation District execute amendatory contracts necessary to 
carry out the provisions of this subsection, including specifically a 
waiver and release of any and all claims to the annual beneficial 
consumptive use of Colorado River water in excess of two hundred 
PUBLIC LAW 98-530—OCT. 19, 1984 
98 STAT. 2701 
fifty thousand acre-feet as provided in paragraph (1) of this subsection. 
(h)(1) If the facilities required to deliver water to the Ak-Chin 
Reservation as provided in this section are not completed by Janu-
ary 1, 1988, the Secretary shall pay damages measured by the 
replacement cost of water not delivered in that calendar year up to a 
limit of thirty-five thousand acre-feet. In addition and to mitigate 
the effects occasioned by the failure to deliver said water, the 
Secretary shall pay all operation, maintenance and replacement 
costs of on-reservation wells to produce up to forty thousand acre-
feet of water in that year for use by the Community. 
(2) Commencing January 1,1989, the Secretary shall pay damages 
measured by the replacement cost of water not delivered under 
subsection (a) or (c) as appropriate, up to a limit of seventy-five 
thousand or seventy-two thousand acre-feet of water, irrespective of 
whether the facilities to deliver water to the Ak-Chin Reservation 
have been completed. 
(i) In any year in which the Ak-Chin Indian Community requests 
additional water under subsection (b) and such water and associated 
canal capacity are available, if the Secretary fails to deliver that 
quantity of additional water, in addition to any damages which he is 
required to pay under subsection (h), he shall pay damages in an 
amount measured by the agricultural water service operation, main-
tenance, and replacement costs for the Central Arizona Project in 
effect during that year, plus 20 per centum, of such additional 
quantity of water as is not delivered. 
(j) The Ak-Chin Indian Community shall have the right to devote 
the permanent water supply provided for by this Act to any use, 
including but not limited to agricultural, municipal, industrial, 
commercial, mining or recreational use. 
(k) The water referred to in subsection (f)(1) shall be for the 
exclusive use and benefit of the Ak-Chin Indian Community, except 
that whenever the aggregate water supply referred to in subsection 
(f) exceeds the quantity necessary to meet the obligations of the 
Secretary under this Act, the Secretary shall allocate on an interim 
basis to the Central Arizona Project any of the water referred to in 
subsection (f) which is not required for delivery to the Ak-Chin 
Indian Reservation under this Act. 
SEC. 3. (a) The obligation of the Secretary to acquire and deliver to 
the Community an interim water supply from 1984 through 1987 
under section 2 of the Act of July 28,1978 (Public Law 95-328) shall 
92 Stat. 409. 
be deemed to be fully discharged once— 
(1) within sixty days of enactment of appropriations, the 
Secretary pays to the Community $1,400,000 in a lump sum 
grant for economic development in fiscal year 1986; 
(2) the Secretary of the Treasury, within thirty days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, has paid to the Community 
$15,000,000 for general community purposes as provided in 
Public Law 98-396; 
Ante, p. 1369. 
(3) within sixty days after the date of enactment of this Act 
the Secretary has provided to the Community grants for eco-
nomic development purposes of $2,000,000 from funds provided 
in Public Law 98-396 for the permanent water supply; and 
(4) the Secretary has amended those repayment contracts 
between the United States and the Community to provide that 
all repayment obligations owing to the United States are 
discharged. 
98 STAT. 2702 
PUBLIC LAW 98-530—OCT. 19, 1984 
The Secretary is hereby authorized and directed to take such actions 
needed to amend the contracts referred to in paragraph (4). 
(b) To carry out the purposes of this section the Ak-Chin Indian 
Community shall have the complete discretion to use and expend 
the funds referred to in this section. 
SEC. 4. The provisions of sections 2 (fKD and (g) of this Act shall 
not take effect until— 
(1) the amendatory contracts authorized by section 2(g) of this 
Act have been duly ratified and approved by each of the dis-
tricts and executed by the United States; and 
(2) the funds authorized to be paid to the districts by section 
2(gX3) of this Act have been appropriated and transferred to the 
districts. 
SEC. 5. (a) The obligations of the Secretary under section 3 of the 
92 Stat. 411. 
Act of July 28, 1978 (92 Stat. 409; Public Law 95-328), shall termi-
nate upon the enactment of this Act. If the Secretary fails to acquire 
the water supply referred to in section 2(f)(1) of this Act by Janu-
ary 1, 1988, the Secretary shall be obligated— 
(1) to deliver annually to the southeast corner of the Ak-Chin 
Indian Reservation eighty-five thousand acre-feet of water 
suitable for irrigation beginning January 1,1988; and 
(2) to provide as soon as possible, but not later than January 
1, 2003, for the permanent delivery of such water. 
(b) Failure to deliver water as specified in this section shall render 
the United States liable for damages measured by the replacement 
cost of water not delivered. 
SEC. 6. The Secretary shall establish a water management plan for 
the Ak-Chin Indian Reservation which, except as is necessary to be 
consistent with the provisions of this Act, will have the same effect 
as any management plan developed under Arizona law. 
SEC. 7. (a) There is hereby authorized to be appropriated the sum 
of $1,000,000 for payment to the fund referred to in subsection (b). 
Subject to appropriations, the Secretary shall pay a sum of 
$1,000,000 to such fund. 
Ot)) No portion of the sum referred to in subsection (a) shall be psiid 
unless— 
(1) the Central Arizona Water Conservation District estab-
lishes a fund to be administered by the District for voluntary 
acquisition or conservation of water from sources within the 
State of Arizona for use in central Arizona in years when water 
supplies are reduced; and 
(2) the Central Arizona Water Conservation District has con-
tributed the sum of not less than $1,000,000 to such fund: 
Provided, That if the contribution of not less than $1,000,000 by 
the District to such fund has not been fully paid as provided in 
this section within two years of the date of enactment of this 
Act, the authorization for appropriation and payment of the 
sum referred to in subsection (a) shall terminate. 
Severability. 
(c) If the provisions of this section are for any reason not imple-
mented as herein provided, the other sections of this Act shall 
remain unaffected thereby. 
SEC. 8. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to enlarge or 
diminish the authority of the Secretary with regard to the Colorado 
River. 
SEC. 9. No authority under this Act to enter into contracts or to 
make payments shall be effective except to the extent and in such 
amounts £is provided in advance in appropriations Acts. Any provi-
Management 
plan. 
Appropriation 
authorization. 
PUBLIC LAW 98-530—OCT. 19, 1984 
98 STAT. 2703 
sion of this Act which, directly or indirectly, authorizes the enact-
ment of new budget authority shall be effective only for fiscal years 
beginning after September 30,1985. 
SEC. 10. (a) Section 311 of the Southern Arizona Water Rights 
Settlement Act of 1982 (96 Stat. 1283) is amended to read as follows: 
"SEC. 311. The provisions of section 2415 of title 28, United States 
Code, shall apply to any action relating to water rights of the 
Papago Indian Tribe or of any member of such Tribe which is 
brought— 
"(1) by the United States for, or on behalf of, such Tribe or 
member of such Tribe, or 
"(2) by such Tribe.". 
OJ) The amendment made by this section shall not apply with 
respect to any action filed prior to the date of enactment of this Act. 
Approved October 19, 1984. 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—H.R. 6206: 
HOUSE REPORT No. 98-1026 (Comm. on Interior and Insular Affairs). 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 130 (1984): 
Sept. 17, considered and passed House. 
Sept. 25, considered and passed Senate, amended. 
Oct. 2, House concurred in Senate amendments. 
WEEKLY COMPILATION OF PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS, Vol. 20, No. 42 (1984): 
Oct 19, Presidential statement.