The Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation in a dispute involving water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. States that draw water from the river — Arizona, Nevada and Colorado — and water districts in California had urged the court to decide for them, and that's what the justices did. Colorado said siding with the Navajo Nation would undermine existing agreements and disrupt the river's management. The Biden administration said that if the court ruled for the Navajo Nation, the government could face lawsuits from many other tribes. The Navajo Nation's president says the ruling is “disappointing" and lawyers are reviewing it. A lawyer who represented states opposing the tribe’s claims says the justices “ruled exactly right.”
  • Thepinyaroma@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Oh it definitely is complicated, and I’m not an expert in any sense. As I understand it a lot of the original water rights in this area were given out during unusually wet years, which has been a cascade of failures since.

    I don’t know that it should have been the Supreme Court dealing with this. Seems like congress should have, but doesn’t like to weigh in anymore. Especially since fixing the water problems out here would cost money and maybe even require us to stop building houses, golf courses, etc… so it gets punted to SCOTUS by default.

    It feels unjust to me to guarantee people a permanent home somewhere and not have a responsibility to somehow address their water needs. Although, how do you give them more of something that barely exists as is?

    I just hate how our government has so effortlessly “othered” people throughout the years. I feel like if 1/3 of Tuscon (about 175,000 people) didn’t have running water, every level of the government wouldn’t just shrug.

    It is a terribly complicated issue and I don’t know how to fix it without changing human nature. It’s just endlessly frustrating.