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RENO, Nev. (AP) — Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has signed an agreement to end longstanding water disputes between the federal government and the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation on the Nevada-Idaho border.
The agreement signed Friday by Jewell guarantees water rights for the tribes while providing certainty for upstream water users of the East Fork of the Owyhee River.
The settlement authorizes millions in funding for tribal water development projects, including rehabilitation of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs irrigation project serving the reservation.
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, who was a driving force behind it being signed into law, says the state of Nevada, individual water users and federal government now will be able to work together to develop water rights and protect and restore the Owyhee River.
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