Community Partner · Senior Water Rights
The Alta Springs Nation
Holders of the basin’s most senior water rights, and a destination economy built over decades of careful governance. The Nation negotiates the valley’s future from a position of strength.
Who We Are
A Nation That Has Learned to Make Promises Wait
The Alta Springs Nation holds the most senior water rights across the desert basin — the rights any large project at Lake Noeta physically cannot proceed without. Alongside them, the Nation operates a successful destination resort whose revenue is the product of decades of shrewd governance, not luck.
That combination — a critical resource and an independent economy — means the Nation comes to every regional conversation negotiating from strength. It has watched outside institutions arrive with transformational promises since before some of their planners were born, and it has learned that the most useful word in any negotiation is sometimes not yet.
The Nation is not opposed to development. It is opposed to development that treats its water, its land, or its people as a line item in someone else’s plan.
At a Glance
| Leadership | Loretta Sandoval, Chairwoman |
| Core authority | Senior basin water rights |
| Economy | Destination resort |
| Negotiating posture | From strength |
Leadership
Office of the Chairwoman
Loretta Sandoval
Chairwoman · Alta Springs Tribal Council
Chairwoman Sandoval leads the senior water-rights holder in the desert basin and the destination resort the Nation has built over decades of careful governance. Sharp, strategic, and unhurried, she negotiates from strength and is pro-development on the Nation’s terms: she will trade water access for real equity stakes, local hiring guarantees, and data sovereignty, and never for goodwill alone. She has watched outside institutions arrive with promises for a long time, and she knows the value of letting them wait.
“We’re not opposed to the future. We’re opposed to being a line item in someone else’s version of it.”
Current Priorities
What the Nation Is Working Toward
Terms, Not Goodwill
Equity Stakes
Any use of the Nation’s water is tied to genuine ownership stakes in the projects it enables — not one-time fees or symbolic partnerships.
Jobs at Home
Local Hiring Guarantees
Development that draws on the basin should employ the basin. The Nation negotiates hiring commitments as a condition, not a courtesy.
Whose Data
Data Sovereignty
The Nation owns and controls data gathered on or about it. What is collected, who holds it, and how it is used are matters of agreement, never assumption.
The Nation on FlyForward
The Nation supports a regional transition that does not repeat the region’s history of extraction. It will engage FlyForward and the Lake Noeta prospect on the condition that the long-term costs are counted honestly and the basin’s people share in the upside. The Nation’s models price the cost of extraction over a longer horizon than the Consortium’s do — and on that horizon, it is often right.
— Office of the Chairwoman, Alta Springs Nation