Ridenbaugh Press/Water Rights

The state of Nevada, which has been fighting federal water rights claims at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, won a key legal skirmish in a September decision on the matter by federal District Judge Roger Hunt.
Hunt, in a written decision spanning 24 pages, went so far as to describe federal efforts and arguments as unreasonable and even arrogant.
The water fight has been viewed as a key front in the state’s effort to oppose development of a nuclear repository in the state.
Hunt held that while federal claims are inconclusive, “The state, on the other hand, faced the unauthorized use of its water, a violation of state water law, a violation of an agreement it entered in good faith, a violation of this court’s order authorizing that agreement, and interference with its obligation to its citizens to enforce its laws and preserve its water . . . there has been no act by Congress which pre-empts Nevada’s state water laws. … The only public interest issue is whether state officials can be precluded from exercising their lawfully mandated duties, or whether a federal agency can run roughshod over a state’s rights or interests without specific authority and mandate to do the precise activities it wishes to do.”
The Department of Energy, which has been attempting to develop the Yucca site, has proposed congressional legislation to allow it to obtain water needed for the site.
See also reports in September in the Las Vegas Review Journal

Nevada Senator Harry Reid on the decision: “Judge Hunt’s ruling confirms what many of us have known for a long time: the federal government will do anything it can to try to turn Nevada into the nation’s nuclear dumping ground, even if that means ignoring the law and the will of the people who would be most affected by the dump. Stealing water, misleading Congress, and ignoring court orders are par for the course for the Energy Department. I am pleased that Judge Hunt upheld Nevada’s right to enforce its water laws. The Energy Department needs to come to grips with the fact that the dump will never be built and begin working on a way to store nuclear waste at the sites where it is produced, instead of an outdated plan to ship 77,000 tons of it across the country to Nevada.”
September 4, 2007 Senator Harry Reid

Nevada water officials filed legal papers early in August saying that the federal officials who have used water for the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain were violating state-federal agreements and have to stop that use.
The legal case open significant new questions for the federal project, which is reliant on use of Nevada water.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the federal Department of energy “has been using water for at least a year in violation of the understanding the parties had. And now, incredibly, DOE continues to use Nevada’s water for a purpose outside the agreement and unsupported in federal law.”
The new filing is part of a state attempt in federal district court to obtain a retraining order against federal use of the water – part, in turn, of a larger effort against development of the nuclear project overall.
The Department of Energy has maintained that it is operating within the terms of the federal-state agreement and that loss of the water will cost the federal agency a large amount of money.
At hearing on the issue August 15, District Judge Roger Hunt appeared critical of the federal effort, questioning the abruptly increased speed by the Department of Energy in moving ahead on the project. He also said the agency had ignored state orders to quit using the water, which is governed by the state.
Senator Harry Reif od Nevada weighed in with his state’s water agency. He told the Review Journal that “The Department of Energy, for lack of a better description, has cheated us for years now. And we want the world to know about this . . . Quite frankly, we’re waiting until Bush is out of office. Once he’s gone, we’re in really good shape.”
[see Las Vegas Review Journal, August 1, August 16, August 24.]