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WATER POLITICS

As recently reported by the Portland Water Bureau’s online site, the US Supreme Court has assigned a California attorney to moderate a dispute between the states of Montana and Wyoming over water rights in the Tongue and Powder rivers. Both rivers rise in Wyoming and flow into Montana.  As the article notes:

“…In a lawsuit filed in January 2007, Montana alleged that Wyoming is taking more than its allowable share of water under the 1951 Yellowstone River Compact. Montana wants the court to order that the water rights in existence at the time of the original compact be respected.

Furthermore, Montana asserts that Wyoming has violated the compact by adding new uses at the expense of the pre-1950’s water rights of Montana irrigators. This issue relates to whether or not groundwater and tributaries of either or both rivers were accounted for in the terms of the contract.

Wyoming says that the initial compact does not account for groundwater and that it was not, in fact, intended to be regulated under the compact.”