FINDINGS.

SEC. 501. FINDINGS. (a) Findings.—The Congress finds the following— (1) the unquantified Federal reserved water rights of the Ute Indian Tribe are the subject of existing claims and prospective lawsuits involving the United States, the State, and the District and numerous other water users in the Uinta Basin. The State and the Tribe negotiated, but did not implement, a compact to quantify the Tribe’s reserved water rights. (2) There are other unresolved Tribal claims arising out of an agreement dated September 20, 1965, where the Tribe deferred development of a portion of its reserved water rights for 15,242 acres of the Tribe’s Group 5 Lands in order to facilitate the construction of the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project. In exchange the United States undertook to develop substitute water for the benefit of the Tribe. (3) It was intended that the Central Utah Project, through construction of the Upalco and Uintah Units (Initial Phase) and the Ute Indian Unit (Ultimate Phase) would provide water 106 STAT. 4651for growth in the Uinta Basin and for late season irrigation for both the Indians and non-Indian water users. However, construction of the Upalco and Uintah Units has not been undertaken, in part because the Bureau was unable to find adequate and economically feasible reservoir sites. The Ute Indian Unit has not been authorized by Congress, and there is no present intent to proceed with Ultimate Phase construction. (4) Without the implementation of the plans to construct additional storage in the Uinta Basin, the water users (both Indian and non-Indian) continue to suffer water shortages and resulting economic decline. (b) Purpose.—This Act and the proposed Revised Ute Indian Compact of 1990 are intended to— (1) quantify the Tribe’s reserved water rights; (2) allow increased beneficial use of such water; and (3) put the Tribe in the same economic position it would have enjoyed had the features contemplated by the September 20, 1965 Agreement been constructed.