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<br />effect had to agree that the requirements of the Endangered Species Act were <br />met before the other parties, especially MBPP, would agree.. <br />The Struggle to Allocate the Waters of the North Platte Basin <br />One instructive way of looking at the Grayrocks compromise is to review it <br />as the latest in a series of agreements allocating the waters of the Platte <br />River and its tributaries. In every case, including the most recent one, com- <br />plaints were brought by users in the downstream state protesting what were re- <br />garded as excessive upstream diversions. The protection afforded to holders <br />of senior water rights under state appropriation doctrines stopped at the state <br />line, necessitating appeal to the US Supreme Court. <br />In particular, the waters of the North Platte and Laramie Rivers have been <br />allocated by two Supreme Court decrees, and the Grayrocks case can best be <br />understood in the context of these earlier agreements. <br />The first decree resulted from Wyoming v. Colorado* (1922), which parti- <br />tioned the waters of the Laramie between these two states. This decree limited <br />Colorado's use of the waters of the Laramie to 37 750 acre-ft/yr (subsequent <br />adjustments raised the limit to about 49 000 acre-ft/yr of which no more than <br />15 500 acre-ft/yr could be diverted from the Laramie Basin. The Court found <br />that the total "dependable flow" in the Basin, based on flow records from 1890 <br />to 1910, would leave 272 500 acre-ft/yr for use in Wyoming. <br />Far more important from Nebraska's point of view was the decree from <br />Nebraska v. Wyoming** (1945), which allocated the waters of the North Platte. <br />This decree limited the lands that could be irrigated above Whalen, Wyoming <br />(about 50 miles from the state line) to about 250 000 acres.*** Below Whalen, <br />the "natural flow" of the river between May 1 and September 30 was divided 75% <br />to Nebraska and 25% to Wyoming. Though the Laramie empties into the North <br />Platte below Whalen, the Court specifically exempted the waters of the Laramie <br />from this decree, saying that <br />This decree shall not affect the apportionment <br />heretofore made by this Court between the States of Wyoming <br />and Colorado of the waters of the Laramie River, a tribu- <br />tary of the North Platte River. <br /> <br />*259 US 419. <br /> <br />**325 US 589. <br /> <br />***The decree exempted certain tributaries of the North Platte, but there was <br />a limit to the acreage that could be irrigated by these tributaries. <br /> <br />46 <br />