KLAMATH IRRIGATORS SEEKS REVIEW OF "ALL WET" TRIAL COURT DECISION

Washington, DC— Plaintiffs in the case of Klamath Irrigation District v. United States filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on May 4, 2007. The appeal asks the Federal Circuit to reverse the trial court’s erroneous holdings that farmers whose water rights vested decades ago are not constitutionally protected property rights, and that the sovereign acts doctrine immunizes the federal government for its 2001 breach of the plaintiffs’ water delivery contracts. This case arises out of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s refusal to deliver any water in during a summer drought in 2001 to farmers who had relied on irrigation water from the Klamath Reclamation Project for over 100 years. Reclamation dedicated the irrigation water for protection of the suckerfish and coho salmon that live in the Klamath River Basin in Oregon.

“This trial court’s decision is one of the strangest decisions that I’ve encountered in a long time,” explained Nancie Marzulla, who is lead counsel in the Klamath litigation. “First, the court held that the farmers did not have a vested water right, although the farmers held land patents and water rights certificates plainly stating that their rights were vested. Equally bizarre, although neither party argued this, the court held that the State of Oregon gave all of its water rights in the Klamath Basin to the federal government in 1905. How he concluded this is simply inexplicable, since the State has been issuing water certificates for the past 100 years to water users. How could the State be doing that if it gave all of its water rights to the government in 1905? Also, why would the State be conducting a stream-water adjudication in which it determines who owns the water rights if the trial judge is correct in its holding that the federal government owns all the water in the Basin?” Ms. Marzulla added, “Plainly such conclusions are all wet.”

The Bureau’s actions caused irrigators to suffer millions of dollars in damages due to lost agricultural production and even forced some farmers into bankruptcy. Farmers and residents of the Klamath Basin are seeking damages for the losses they suffered as a result of the government’s actions.

Printable View