Federal Rights to Groundwater: An Update on the Agua Caliente Litigation - Part 1
Indian tribes and federal reservations, such as national forests and national parks, often hold special “federal reserved water rights” in local rivers and streams. In 2013, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians sued two local water agencies in the area of Palm Springs, California, claiming that the Agua Caliente also holds a federal reserved water right in the local groundwater.
Earlier this year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, holding that federal reserved water rights extend to groundwater and preempt state water rights.
The two water districts have asked the United States Supreme Court to review the case. And 10 states have filed a brief in support of Supreme Court review, arguing that the Ninth Circuit decision is “literally a watershed opinion washing away the authority and control that states have traditionally exercised over groundwater resources.”
This presentation will review the facts and legal issues involved in the Agua Caliente case, as well as the litigation's current status. The presentation also will discuss the potential implications of the litigation for groundwater managers elsewhere in the United States.
of Natural Resources Law, Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA
Thompson is a leading expert on water law and policy, and the author of both Legal Control of Water Resources, fourth edition, and Managing California's Water. A former clerk to the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, he currently serves as special master for the United States Supreme Court in Montana v. Wyoming, an interstate dispute involving the Yellowstone River system. He is counsel for the Coachella Valley Water District in Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians v. Coachella Valley Water District. Thompson is also is a former member of the Science Advisory Board for the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
