WYOMING
v.
COLORADO
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The Court entered a new decree establishing specific water diversion rights for Colorado and Wyoming from the Laramie River and its tributaries, superseding a prior decree.
The parties jointly moved to vacate a former decree concerning water rights from the Laramie River. The Court considered this motion and entered a new…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Water Diversion cases and more on FLexlaw
Upon consideration of the joint motion of counsel for the parties in this case to vacate the former decree (259 U. S. 496; 260 U. S. 1), it is ordered that the joint motion be, and it is hereby, granted and the former decree, as amended, is vacated and a new decree is entered to read as follows:
“It Is Ordered, Adjudged and Decreed that:
“I. The State of Colorado, or anyone recognized by her as duly entitled thereto, shall have the right to divert from the Laramie river and its tributaries, for use in the State of Colorado, 49,375 acre-feet of water in each calendar year, which diversion and use shall be subject to the limitations and restrictions hereinafter set forth. The State of Wyoming, or anyone recognized by her as duly entitled thereto, shall have the right to divert and use all water flowing and remaining in the Laramie river and its tributaries after such diversion and use in Colorado.
“II. The State of Colorado, its officers, attorneys, agents and employees be, and they are severally enjoined
“(a) from diverting or permitting the diversion of more than 19,875 acre-feet of water in any calendar year from the Laramie river and its tributaries for use in Colorado at any or all points outside of the basin of said river, which amount may be diverted by the present owners of transmountain water rights or by their successors in ownership, through any ditches, canals, tunnels or structures capable of carrying the same, as the owners of said water rights and of such structures may from time to time agree among themselves, or as may be determined by a court of competent jurisdiction;
“(b) from diverting or permitting the diversion of more than 29,500 acre-feet of water in any calendar year from the Laramie river and its tributaries for use in Colorado within the' drainage basin of said river, of which amount not more than 1,800 acre-feet shall be diverted in any calendar year after July 31; provided, that if in any calendar year any part or all of said 19,875 acre-feet of water which may be diverted for use outside of the drainage basin of said river is not so diverted for use outside the drainage basin of said river, the amount not so diverted may be added to the amount which may be diverted hereunder for use in Colorado within the drainage basin of said river. Such water diverted for use in Colorado within the drainage basin of said river shall be diverted only through the headgates of ditches serving, and shall only be used to irrigate, those lands within the Laramie river basin in Colorado which are marked and designed by cross-hatching on Exhibit ‘A’ attached hereto and hereby made a part hereof, by the present owners of said lands and the water rights serving said lands or by their successors in ownership, and none of said waters shall be used for the irrigation of any lands not included within the boundaries of the lands so indicated on Exhibit ‘A’. George F. Gvaj, Attorney General, and Howard B. Black, Deputy Attorney General, for the State of Wyoming, complainant.
Duke W. Dunbar, Attorney General, Frank E. Hickey, Deputy Attorney General, John B. Barnard, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, and Felix L. Sparks, Special Assistant Attorney General, for the State of Colorado, defendant.
James A. Greenwood for Goodrich et al., movants.
“III. Except as modified or restricted hereby, the relative rights to the use of Colorado’s share of the Laramie river shall continue to be governed by the rules of appropriation and use as determined by the laws of Colorado, and shall be administered by its water officials.
“IV. This decree shall not prejudice or affect the right of the State of Colorado or the State of Wyoming, or of anyone recognized by either state as duly entitled thereto, to continue to exercise the right to divert and use water from Sand Creek, sometimes spoken of as a tributary of the Laramie river, in virtue of an existing and lawful appropriation of the waters of such creek.
“V. The Clerk of this Court shall transmit to the chief magistrates of the States of Wyoming and Colorado copies of this decree duly authenticated under the seal of this Court.”
The motion of Ward Goodrich et al. for leave to intervene is denied.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Sporhase v. Nebraska Ex rel. Douglas, 458 U.S. 941 (U.S. 1982)…U. S. 525, 533 (1949). Second, the legal expectation that under certain circumstances each State may restrict water within its borders has been fostered over the years not only by our equitable apportionment decrees, see, e. g., Wyoming v. Colorado, 353 U. S. 953 (1957), but also by the negotiation and enforcement of interstate compacts. Our law therefore has recognized the relevance of state boundaries in the allocation of scarce water resources. Third, although appellee’s claim to public ownership of Nebra…1 / 2
-
Fort Gratiot Sanitary Landfill, Inc. v. Mich. Dep't of Natural Res., 504 U.S. 353 (U.S. 1992)…. S. 525, 533 (1949). Second, the legal expectation that under certain circumstances each State may restrict water within its borders has been fostered over the years not only by our equitable apportionment decrees, see, e. g., Wyoming v. Colorado, 353 U. S. 953 (1957), but also by the negotiation and enforcement of interstate compacts. Our law therefore has recognized the relevance of state boundaries in the allocation of scarce water resources. Third, although appellee’s claim to public ownership of Nebr…
-
Nebraska v. Wyoming, 507 U.S. 584 (U.S. 1993)…ing contended that the waters of the Laramie are completely apportioned between Colorado and Wyoming by virtue of this Court’s 1922 Laramie River decree, Wyoming v. Colorado, 259 U. S. 419, 496, modified, 260 U. S. 1, vacated and new decree entered, 353 U. S. 953 (1957), which the North Platte decree expressly left undisturbed. Paragraph XII(d) of the North Platte decree does state that the decree “shall not affect... [t]he apportionment heretofore made by this Court between the States of Wyoming and Colora…
Authorities Cited
- State of Wyo. v. State of Colo., 259 U.S. 419 (U.S. 1922)
- State of Wyo. v. State of Colo., 260 U.S. 1 (U.S. 1922)