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Court to hear
water case
The state court made the determination Thursday.
The case stems from a lawsuit filed in
2001 by Klamath Project irrigators. The class action
suit involved 1,400 farm families and 13 water districts
seeking $100 million against the U.S. for the taking of
their water, according to the Marzulla law firm of
Washington, D.C., which represents irrigators.
The conflict arose when the Bureau of
Reclamation kept water in Klamath Lake to help the
endangered suckers.
Court of Appeals
The case is now on appeal to the
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
That court asked in July for the Oregon Supreme Court to
decide whether Oregon law gives Klamath Basin farmers a
property right in Klamath Project water.
“This is great news for irrigators,”
said Klamath Falls attorney Bill Ganong, who helped
write the plaintiffs’ brief.
“The long-term impact is that if we
win, then when the federal government decides they need
to take water — in this case for fish — they are going
to have to pay for that water.”
Nancie G. Marzulla,
attorney for the farmers and irrigation districts, said
in a press release that she was “very pleased” the
Oregon Supreme Court agreed to decide whether Klamath
water users have any property rights under Oregon law.
Trial court
She noted that a federal trial court
dismissed the irrigators’ suit in 2007, saying that
Klamath farmers had no property right in Klamath Project
water under Oregon law.
“We think the trial court got Oregon
law wrong, and that the Oregon Supreme Court is the
proper court to correctly interpret Oregon law,”
she said.
The federal government had opposed
sending the issue to the Oregon court, arguing that the
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals should instead accept
the federal trial court’s interpretation of Oregon law.
Timeline
Ganong said th e issue would be taken
up by the Oregon Supreme Court in speedy fashion.
Irrigators have 25 days to submit
briefs related to three questions, he said. After that,
the government has 25 days to respond with its own
briefs.
Issues to be decided
Issues which the Oregon Supreme Court
has agreed to decide are:
Whether, assuming that the U.S.
appropriated water rights for the Klamath Project
pursuant to the 1905 Oregon statute, that statute
precludes other persons from obtaining a beneficial or
equitable interest in those rights.
Whether, under Oregon law, beneficial
use by the person who receives water from the Klamath
Project is sufficient to give that person a beneficial
or equitable interest in the water.
Whether, under
Oregon law, anyone may assert either a legal or an
equitable property interest in water from the Klamath
Project without first having gone through the pending
state water rights adjudication.
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