EPA finalized a rule requiring states to consider trial reserved rights when establishing their water quality standards and requiring states to protect tribal populations to the same risk level as general state populations. The rule established a new national framework for EPA and states to account for the treaty and reserved rights of tribes when setting Water Quality Standards under the Clean Water Act. The aquatic and aquatic-dependent resource rights protected include those guaranteed by treaties, statutes, or executive orders. Under the rule, where a tribe asserts such a right in writing to a state and EPA, the state is required to: consider the use and value of its waters for protecting the tribal rights, consider the future exercise of the tribe’s rights unaffected by the water quality, and “establish water quality criteria to protect the tribal reserved right where the state has adopted designated uses that either expressly incorporate protection of the Tribal reserved right or encompass the right.” The new measure is expected to better protect tribal reserved rights. The rule went into effect on June 3, 2024.