CASPER, Wyo. -- A Wyoming judge has signed a decree to end 37 years of water-rights cases in the Big Horn River basin and set how much water is to be allocated to federal, tribal and state interests.
The decree signed by Judge Robert E. Skar on Friday finalizes all of the interim orders that have been entered over the years, starting with a complaint filed in 1977 on the division of water rights in northern Wyoming.
"We went through an adjudication of every water right that existed before 1984 for one-quarter of the state of Wyoming," said State Engineer Pat Tyrrell. "The sheer size of this thing took time."
The final order sets those rights and ends those claims, the Casper Star-Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/1nCKOCz).
"We now have a quantified amount of the tribal award and other federal rights, so we know what they are," Tyrrell said.
Skar's ruling must still go through an appeal period before it is official. Big Horn water rights cases will then be returned to the jurisdiction of the state engineer's office.
There had been disagreement over water usage among tribal and state entities, but that appears to be resolved.
"The adjudication did cause some discord over the types of rights the tribes have, but for the most part those rights are assured. That's a positive," Eastern Shoshone Attorney General Kimberly Varilek said.
The case was handled in seven phases, beginning with an examination of tribal water rights awarded in the Second Treaty of Fort Bridger. In the original case, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled the tribes were awarded 499,862 acre-feet of reserved water right for use on their irrigable agricultural lands.
The next phases handled treaty issues, state water right adjudication and federal adjudications.
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