State of Nebraska v. State of Wyoming United States

• Decision Date: 08 October 1945
• Docket Number: O,No. 6,6
• Citation: 325 U.S. 665,89 L.Ed. 1857,66 S.Ct. 1
• Parties: STATE OF NEBRASKA v. STATE OF WYOMING et al. (UNITED STATES, Intervener). riginal
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

325 U.S. 665

66 S.Ct. 1

89 L.Ed. 1857

STATE OF NEBRASKA

v STATE OF WYOMING et al. (UNITED STATES, Intervener).

No. 6, Original.

Decided Oct. 8, 1945.

Decree entered pursuant to opinion in 65 S.Ct. 1332.

This cause having been heretofore submitted on the report of the Special Master and the exceptions of the parties thereto, and the Court being now fully advised in the premises:

It is ordered, adjudged and decreed that:

I. The State of Colorado, its officers, attorneys, agents and employees, be and they are hereby severally enjoined

(a) From diverting or permitting the diversion of water from the North Platte River and its tributaries for the irrigation of more than a total of 135,000 acres of land in Jackson County, Colorado, during any one irrigation season;

(b) From storing or permitting the storage of more than a total amount of 17,000 acre feet of water for irrigation purposes from the North Platte River and its tributaries in Jackson County, Colorado, between October 1 of any year and September 30 of the following year;

(c) From exporting out of the basin of the North Platte River and its tributaries in Jackson County, Colorado, to any other stream basin or basins more than 60,000 acre feet of water in any period of ten consecutive years reckoned in continuing progressive series beginning with October 1, 1945.

II. Exclusive of the Kendrick Project and Seminoe Reservoir the State of Wyoming, its officers, attorneys, agents and employees, be and they are hereby severally enjoined

(a) From diverting or permitting the diversion of water from the North Platte River above the Guernsey Reservoir and from the tributaries entering the North Platte River above the Pathfinder Dam for the

irrigation of more than a total of 168,000 acres of land in Wyoming during any one irrigation season.

(b) From storing or permitting the storage of more than a total amount of 18,000 acre feet of water for irrigation purposes from the North Platte River and its tributaries above the Pathfinder Reservoir between October 1 of any year and September 30 of the following year.

III. The State of Wyoming, its officers, attorneys, agents and employees, be and they are hereby severally enjoined from storing or permitting the storage of water in Pathfinder, Guernsey, Seminoe and Alcova Reservoirs otherwise than in accordance with the relative storage rights, as among themselves, of such reservoirs, which are hereby defined and fixed as follows:

First, Pathfinder Reservoir;

Second, Guernsey Reservoir;

Third, Seminoe Reservoir; and

Fourth, Alvoca Reservoir;

Provided, however, that water may be impounded in or released from Seminoe Reservoir, contrary to the foregoing rule of priority operation for use in the generation of electric power when and only when such storage or release will not materially interfere with the administration of water for irrigation purposes according to the priority decreed for the French Canal and the State Line Canals.

IV. The State of Wyoming, its officers, attorneys, agents and employees be and they are hereby severally enjoined from storing or permitting the storage of water in Pathfinder, Guernsey, Seminoe or Alcova Reservoirs, and from the diversion of natural flow water through the Casper Canal for the Kendrick Project between and including May 1 and September 30 of each year otherwise than in accordance with the rule of priority in relation to the appropriations of the Nebraska lands supplied by the French Canal and by the State Line Canals, which said Nebraska appropriations are hereby adjudged to be senior to said four reservoirs and said Casper Canal, and which said

Nebraska appropriations are hereby identified and defined, and their diversion limitations in second feet and seasonal limitations in acre feet fixed as follows:

Limitation Seasonal

in Limitation

Sec. in

Lands Canal Feet Acre Ft.

Tract of 1025 acres ..........French. 15. 2,227

Mitchell Irrigation District .Mitchell. 195. 35,000

Gering Irrigation District ...Gering. 193. 36,000

Farmers Irrigation District ..Tri-State. 748. 183,050

Ramshorn Irrigation District .Ramshorn. 14. 3,000

V. The natural flow in the Guernsey Dam to Tri-State Dam section between and including May 1 and September 30 of each year, including the contribution of Spring Creek, be and the same hereby is apportioned between Wyoming and Nebraska on the basis of twenty-five per cent to Wyoming and seventy-five per cent to Nebraska, with the right granted Nebraska to designate from time to time the portion of its share which shall be delivered into the Interstate, Fort Laramie, French and Mitchell Canals for use on the Nebraska lands served by these canals. The State of Nebraska, its officers, attorneys, agents and employees, and the State of Wyoming, its officers, attorneys, agents and employees, are hereby enjoined and restrained from diversion or use contrary to this apportionment, provided that in the apportionment of water in this section the flow for each day, until ascertainable, shall be assumed to be the same as that of the preceding day, as shown by the measurements and computations for that day, and provided further, that unless and until Nebraska, Wyoming and the United States agree upon a modification thereof, or upon another formula, reservoir evaporation and transportation losses in the segregation of natural flow and storage shall be computed in accordance with the following formula taken from United States' Exhibit 204A:

Reservoir Evaporation Losses.

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