Wednesday, May 18 2011 8:29AM
Arizona lawmakers are working to get rural tribes access to water through new pipeline projects.
Leaders from a number of Native American tribes in Arizona are discussing a new water deal with state legislators who want to redistribute some of the water allocated to those tribes, according to reports.
One aspect of the deal which is of importance to many of the tribal leaders is making water available to reservations that have long gone without abundant access, the Daily Reporter states.
"We have to find a way to pipe the water to them. [But,] we may have to take cuts here and there from the entire project," Joshua Lavar Butler, a state lawmaker and Navajo, told the paper.
The newspaper says Senator Jon Kyl is guiding the talks on the redistribution of the water, including how some of the larger tribes, including the Gila River Indian and White Mountain Apache tribes, will gain access to rural community water systems.
A roadblock to the construction of new water pipelines leading to reservations in the rural parts of the state is a high price tag. Reports say it would cost the state $800 million to supply all rural tribes with pipelines.