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. 00164'7 March 6, 1992 Issue No. 928 WESTERN STATES WATER - IfIIR 0 9 1991 TIlE WEEKLY NEWSLETIER OF TIlE WESTERN STATES WATER COUNCIL editor - Tony Willardson Creekvi... Plaza, SUite /1-201 I 942 East 7145 So. I Midvale, Utah 84047 I (801) 561-5300 I FAX (801) 255-9642 chairman - William H. Young typist - Carrie curvin CONGRESSIONAL UPDATElWATER RESOURCES Senate Energy Committee/Omnibus Reclamation Bill . The Senate Energy Committee tentatively plans mark-up of an omnibus package of Reclamation bills on March 11, The House passed its version of the bill (H,R, 429) last June CNSW #893). It includes over thirty tttles, and controversy surrounding several provisions has delayed Senate action and held up many project authorizations and completion of the Central Utah Project (WSW #914, #916, and #918). UTIGAllON Nebraska v. WvomillQ On February 21, Special Master Owen Olpin issued a draft report on cross-motions for summary judgement in Nebraska v. WvominQ (U.S. Sp. Ct. NO.1 08). He has invtted the parties to comment on his report, prior to tts submission to the Supreme Court, at a March 9 hearing in Pasedena, California. Four basic issues are involved. . First, the Special Master granted Nebraska's and the United States' motions confirming a priority date of December 6, 1904, to fill the Inland Lakes in Nebraska for irrigation. Wyoming had sought to declare such use unlawful for lack of a storage permtt. Wyoming Assistant Attorney General Dennis Cook says tt is unclear whether the right is for the 46,000 acre-feet requested by Nebraska, and that a trial is required to determine the other parameters of the Inland Lakes water right, including among other , things the place the water will be diverted and where ~ will ultimately be used, etc. Second, the Special Master held that Nebraska has the right to establish whether any diminution of executive director - Craig Bell the Laramie River's contribution to the North Platte would interfere with either pre- or post-1945 equities under a Supreme Court decree. Nebraska claims that the Laramie's flows were affirmatively apportioned to Nebraska, while Wyoming had sought summary judgement that all of the waters in the river not apportioned to Colorado in Colorado v. WvominQ were apportioned to Wyoming. Olpin did not find that Nebraska had a right to the Laramie under the 1945 decree, and an evidentiary hearing is likely. Nebraska is affected by the operation of Basin Electric's Grayrocks Reservoir on the river, and a related settlement agreement allowing the use of 22,500 acre- feet for the proposed Corn Creek Project. Third, the Special Master denied Wyoming's motion for summary judgement declaring that tt had a right to build the Deer Creek Project to supply Casper, but found that to the extent ~ is used for municipal purposes tt is exempt from provisions of the 1945 decree. He may consider what affect other potential uses would have on Nebraska before ruling finally, but according to Cook, the report dispels most of the objections raised by Nebraska and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. 'It appears that Special Master Olpin agrees wtth Wyoming that Deer Creek can be built to supply municipal uses in Wyoming without violating the Supreme Court's 1945 Decree.' Fourth, to protect certain areas of irrigated acreage, Nebraska sought a ruling that the 1945 decree imposed no legal Iimttations, on the amount of water that can be diverted into the State Une and North Platte canals, other than those imposed by Nebraska state law. In granting Nebraska's motion, the Special Master determined that the beneficial use requirements (laid out in 1945 for the canals, which divert water between Whalen Dam and Tri-State Dam) are not absolute ceilings for Nebraska's diversions on a canal-by-canal basis.