Nevada lawsuit threatens Navajo water settlement push
WINDOW ROCK
Nevada’s decision to take the federal government to court over the Colorado River’s new operating rules could stall the Navajo Nation’s push to get its Arizona water rights settlement through Congress before the year ends, a Navajo Nation water rights attorney said this week.
“We’re on an extremely limited window of time,” said Dwight Witherspoon, an attorney with the Water Rights Unit of the Navajo Nation Department of Justice. “The lawsuit could be a monkey wrench. Yes, absolutely.”
The state of Nevada, the Colorado River Commission of Nevada and the Southern Nevada Water Authority filed a complaint Monday, Aug. 24, in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada against Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Reclamation and Aubrey Bettencourt, the bureau’s principal deputy commissioner.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to set aside the July 31 Final Environmental Impact Statement on post-2026 Colorado River operations, the Aug. 21 Record of Decision establishing a framework for operations through 2036 and the operating guidelines for 2027 and 2028 issued the same day.
To read the full article, please see the Aug. 27, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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