PUBLIC LAW 104-301—OCT. 11, 1996 110 STAT. 3653 SEC. 11. EFFECT OF TfflS ACT ON CASES INVOLVING THE NAVAJO 25 USC 640d NATION AND THE HOPI TRIBE. note. Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this Act shall be interpreted or deemed to preclude, limit, or endorse, in any msinner, actions by the Navajo Nation that seek, in court, an offset from judgments for payments received by the Hopi Tribe under the Settlement Agreement. SEC. 12. WATER RIGHTS. 25 USC 640d (a) IN GENERAL.— (1) WATER RIGHTS.—Subject to the other provisions of this section, newly acquired trust lands shall have only the following water rights: (A) The right to the reasonable use of groimdwater pumped from such lands. (B) All rights to the use of surface water on such lands existing under State law on the date of acquisition, with the priority date of such right under State law. (C) The right to make any further beneficial use on such lands which is imappropriated on the date each parcel of newly acquired trust lands is taken into trust. The priority date for the right shall be the date the lands are taken into trust. (2) RIGHTS NOT SUBJECT TO FORFEITURE OR ABANDON- MENT. —The Tribe's water rights for newly acquired trust lands shall not be subject to forfeiture or abandonment arising from events occurring after the date the lands are taken into trust. (b) RECOGNITION AS VALID USES.— (1) GROUNDWATER. — With respect to water rights associated with newly acquired trust lands, the Tribe, and the United States on the Tribe's behsdf, shall recognize as valid all uses of groundwater which may be made from wells (or their subsequent replacements) in existence on the date each parcel of newly acquired trust land is acquired and shall not object to such groimdwater uses on the basis of water rights associated with the newly acquired trust lands. The Tribe, and the United States on the Tribe's behalf, may object only to the impact of groundwater uses on newly acquired trust lands which are initiated after the date the lands affected are taken into trust and only on grounds allowed by the State law as it exists when the objection is made. The Tribe, and the United States on the Tribe's behalf, shall not object to the impact of groundwater uses on the Tribe's right to surface water established pursuant to subsection (a)(3) when those groundwater uses are initiated before the Tribe initiates its beneficial use of surface water pursuant to subsection (a)(3). (2) SURFACE WATER. —With respect to water rights associated with newly acquired trust lands, the Tribe, and the United States on the Tribe's behalf, shall recognize as vaHd all uses of surface water in existence on or prior to the date each parcel of newly acquired trust land is acquired and shall not object to such surface water uses on the basis of water rights associated with the newly acquired trust lands, but shall have the right to enforce the priority of its rights against all junior water rights the exercise of which interfere with the actual use of the Tribe's senior surface water rights.
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