KENT DECREE REREGULATION.

SEC. 404. KENT DECREE REREGULATION. (a) To permit the Community to more fully utilize its water rights under the Kent Decree as provided in the Agreement and subsection (b) of this section, the agreement between the United States and the SRP dated June 3, 1935, as amended on November 26, 1935, relating to the Verde River Storage Works, and the agreement among the SRP, Phelps Dodge Corporation, and the Defense Plant Corporation dated March 1, 1944, including, but not limited to, the provisions of such agreements by which SRP saves and holds harmless the United States, and the rights of the United States and SRP to Verde River storage, are hereby ratified, confirmed and declared to be valid: Provided, however, That the priority date and quantification of these storage rights, and such other storage rights as may exist, shall be determined in an appropriate state proceeding in the State of Arizona. Nothing in this Act or the Agreement shall affect the validity or invalidity of any permit, right-of-way, license or grant held by Phelps Dodge Corporation for the utilization of land or water within the San Carlos Apache Reservation. (b) The Secretary is authorized and directed to contract with SRP, for a period of not more than twenty-five years from the date the authorizations contained in section 409(b) of this Act become effective, for the utilization of up to three thousand acre-feet of the existing storage right of the United States and SRP behind Bartlett and Horseshoe Dams on the Verde River for the reregulation of the Community’s rights to water under the Kent Decree. This storage space shall be for seasonal regulation only, with no annual carry-over past October 1.