1、 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress INSIGHTINSIGHTi i Federal Reserved Water Rights and Groundwater: Quantity, Quality, and Pore Space nae redacted Specialist in Energy and Natural Resources Policy February 8, 2018 Tribal rights to groundwater have not been legally establish
2、ed to the same extent as rights to other natural resources (e.g., surface water, timber, minerals). A March 2017 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the rights of a California Indian tribe (the Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians) to groundwater beneath the tribes r
3、eservation in the Coachella Valley. In November 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the decision; the case now proceeds to other phases that may partially shape this rulings significance. This is the first case in which an appellate court has held that a tribes “reserved” rights under th
4、e Winters doctrine apply to groundwater. Pursuant to Winters, when Congress reserves land for a reservation, it also reserves a right to water necessary to accomplish the purposes for which the reservation was created. For decades, tribal reserved rights for surface water have been established and h
