Mealey's Water Rights
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September 21, 2021
Interior Secretary Haaland Signs Water Compact For Native American Water Rights
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Sept. 17 signed the Confederated Salish and Kootenai-Montana Compact, formally executing the Montana Water Rights Protection Act and improving the tribes’ access to water within the Flathead Reservation, according to an Interior Department press release.
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September 17, 2021
5 Of Tribe’s Water Rights Claims Are Time-Barred; Rest Transferred To Utah Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Sept. 15 dismissed five claims in a Native American tribe’s water rights complaint against the United States and Utah and transferred the remaining claims to a Utah federal court.
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September 08, 2021
Multiplaintiff, Interstate Or Notable Water Rights Cases
New developments in the following multiplaintiff, interstate or notable water rights cases are marked in boldface type.
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September 08, 2021
Clean Water Rule Intervenors Filed But Didn’t Speak, Pennsylvania Judge Rules
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge on Aug. 6 denied a motion by eight states and three industry associations to strike plaintiffs’ response to a United States motion to remand a Clean Water Rule case to federal agencies without vacatur.
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September 08, 2021
9th Circuit Ignores EPA’s Reversal, Says Clean Water Act Applies To Wetlands
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 16 ignored the Environmental Protection Agency’s reversal in a Clean Water Act (CWA) enforcement action and said that a federal district court properly granted the agency summary judgment against Idaho property owners who claimed that the CWA did not apply to wetlands on a property they own.
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September 08, 2021
California Appeals Court Reverses, Remands $2.5M Fee Award For Groundwater Class
FRESNO, Calif. — A California appeals court on Aug. 24 said a class of “small water pumpers” in a groundwater adjudication is entitled to attorney fees and costs but reversed a court’s $2.5 million award because it is “contradictory in terms of the amounts taxes and awarded.”
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September 08, 2021
Georgia Federal Judge Rejects Challenges To Army Corps’ ACF Water Manual
ATLANTA — Writing, “Decades of deferral and delay due to litigation should end,” a Georgia federal judge on Aug. 11 denied challenges by Alabama and three environmental groups to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Water Control Manual for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin.
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September 08, 2021
Oklahoma Federal Judge: Water Company’s Costs Free Developer’s Choice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Finding that a nonprofit water company’s fee requirements for water services to a housing development were “excessive, unreasonable, and confiscatory,” an Oklahoma federal judge on Aug. 16 said the developer is not required to use the water company and can use another water provider.
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September 08, 2021
Massachusetts Federal Judge Remands Clean Water Rule Lawsuit Without Vacatur
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge on Sept. 1 granted the United States’ motion to remand a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s Clean Water Rule without vacating the rule, acknowledging that days earlier an Arizona federal judge did vacate the rule.
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September 07, 2021
California Judge Enjoins Water Ordinances Targeting Hmong Residents
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge on Sept. 3 enjoined a county from enforcing two water ordinances because she said they appear to discriminate against Hmong residents of the rural county and deprive them of water.
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September 03, 2021
3 California Irrigation Districts Sue State Water Board Over Curtailment Order
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Three northern California irrigation districts on Sept. 1 filed a complaint in state court against the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), saying the board’s Aug. 20 curtailment of the districts’ water rights in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watershed (the California Delta) is contrary to law, without factual basis and in violation of due process rights.
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September 01, 2021
Agencies’ Remand Motion Granted By Federal Judge In Tribes’ Clean Water Rules Suit
TUCSON, Ariz. — An Arizona federal judge on Aug. 30 granted a voluntary motion for remand filed by defendants U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in an action brought by Native American tribes seeking to reinstate the repealed 2015 Clean Water Rule and vacate a navigable waters rule. The judge also ordered that, upon remand, the Trump-era rules in place be vacated.
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August 31, 2021
Bureau Of Reclamation: Drought Puts Lake Mead In 1st Level 1 Water Shortage
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Aug. 16 said Lake Mead will operate in its first-ever Level 1 Shortage Condition due to drought in the Colorado River basin.
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August 23, 2021
U.S. Solicitor General Will Take Part In High Court Interstate Water Case Oct. 4
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 23 granted a motion by the U.S. solicitor general to participate as amicus curiae in Oct. 4 arguments on whether groundwater under Mississippi an interstate resource subject to equitable apportionment in an interstate dispute with Tennessee.
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August 10, 2021
Federal Claims Court: Grazing Restrictions Didn’t Take Property Rights
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Court of Federal Claims on July 26 reconsidered its 2017 finding in a takings case and said instead that a grazing association did not have a right to beneficial use of stock water in a national forest and the United States did not effect a physical taking by denying grazing permits.
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August 10, 2021
Multiplaintiff, Interstate Or Notable Water Rights Cases
New developments in the following multiplaintiff, interstate or notable water rights cases are marked in boldface type.
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August 10, 2021
22 States: Remand Clean Water Rule Case To Agencies Without Vacatur
SAN FRANCISCO — Twenty-two states that intervened in a Clean Water Rule lawsuit on Aug. 6 told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that it should grant the United States’ motion to remand the case to federal agencies and not vacate the Trump-era version of the rule.
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August 10, 2021
Navajo Nation: Trump Clean Water Rule Causing Harm, Should Be Vacated
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The Navajo Nation on Aug. 4 stood firm on its request that a New Mexico federal court vacate the Trump administration’s Clean Water Rule, saying the rule “has been causing harm for over a year and remanding it without vacatur will allow that harm to continue for at least another year.”
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August 09, 2021
Montana Water Court’s 1st Final Decree Adjudicates Tribe’s Water Rights
HELENA, Mont. — The Montana Water Court on July 12 issued its first final decree since its creation 41 years ago by adjudicating the water rights claimed by the United States on behalf of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.
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August 09, 2021
South Carolina Federal Judge Remands Clean Water Rule Suit To EPA Without Vacatur
CHARLESTON, S.C. — A South Carolina federal court judge on July 14 remanded environmentalists’ lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Clean Water Rule to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers without vacatur so the new administration can begin a rulemaking process.