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Court Rejects Conservancy District’s Efforts to Claim Ownership of Rio Grande Water and Dams

Date
March 29, 2010
Contact
John Horning (505) 988-9126 x1153
In This Release
Rivers  
#ReviveTheRio

Monday, March 29, 2010
Court Rejects Conservancy District’s Efforts to Claim Ownership of Rio Grande Water and Dams

Efforts to Restore Rio Grande Need Federal Leadership
Contact: John Horning (505) 988-9126 x1153

Albuquerque, New Mexico – The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District that it owns and control of water rights, dams, ditches and reservoirs that the federal government has claimed ownership to for nearly six decades. The March 26th ruling gives the federal government the green light to continue to assert control over water and dams that could help protect endangered species and ensure flows in the Rio Grande.

The ruling comes in response to an appeal of a district court ruling from November 2005 in which Judge James Parker upheld the federal government’s authority to manage water to benefit the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow and the Southwest willow flycatcher.

The ruling from the three-judge panel found that the Conservancy District could not make legal claims to ownership of irrigation facilities because it was barred by the statute of limitations given that the transfer of its assets to the federal government occurred nearly sixty years ago in 1951. At that time the federal Bureau of Reclamation spent $231 million of taxpayer money to rebuild irrigation works to restore irrigation works in the Middle Rio Grande Valley.

“This ruling severely undermines the Conservancy District’s assertions of ownership of the irrigation works which was one the cornerstones of an era of wasteful and inefficient management of the Rio Grande’s water,” said John Horning, Executive Director of WildEarth Guardians. “By reaffirming that the Conservancy District’s claims of ownership do not have a legal leg to stand on, a new era of water management that serves the public interest in a healthy Rio Grande can continue to emerge,” Horning added.

The 10th Circuit Court’s decision stems from a November 1999 lawsuit brought by WildEarth Guardians, Defenders of Wildlife, National Audubon Society, New Mexico Audubon Council, Sierra Club, and Southwest Environmental Center, in which the groups alleged that water diversions and dam operations were harming the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow and southwestern willow flycatcher, two imperiled species dependent on a healthy Rio Grande ecosystem.

The 10th Circuit Court panel also indicated in its ruling that a separate opinion on appeals more central to environmental groups’ claims is forthcoming. There is the potential for that looming decision to provide greater clarity or raise greater uncertainty and ambiguity concerning federal water managers’ discretion in Rio Grande water management decisions and endangered species recovery.

“Though the stakes are high regarding the next ruling, the decision this week puts the Conservancy District in check,” said Horning. “Regardless of the outcome as we look to the future we will need strong federal leadership-from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Congress- as well as a commitment from the Conservancy District to think creatively about how to ensure that the Rio Grande can be sustained in the face of climate change, population growth and the growing demands on the river’s limited water supplies.”

The Rio Grande silvery minnow, once one of the most abundant fish species in the Rio Grande, is the last of its kind in the river. Listed as an endangered species in July 1994, it once was so common that thousands of swimming fish could turn the river’s surface a ‘silvery’ color. The imperiled Southwestern willow flycatcher, listed under the ESA in March 1995 is the minnow’s terrestrial partner, and is dependent upon the rapidly disappearing riverside Bosque of cottonwoods and willows.

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The ruling comes in response to an appeal of a district court ruling from November 2005 in which Judge James Parker upheld the federal government’s authority to manage water to benefit the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow and the Southwest willow flycatcher.