Wyoming v. Colorado
Headline: Court vacates older decree and orders a new allocation limiting Colorado’s Laramie River diversions while preserving Wyoming’s remaining water rights and uses.
Holding: The Court granted the parties’ joint motion, vacated the prior decree, and entered a new decree allocating specific annual diversion limits between Colorado and Wyoming.
- Caps Colorado’s annual Laramie River diversions at 49,375 acre-feet.
- Limits out-of-basin diversions to 19,875 acre-feet per year.
- Restricts in-basin diversions to 29,500 acre-feet and late-season transfers.
Summary
Background
The dispute involves the States of Colorado and Wyoming over use of water from the Laramie River and its tributaries. Counsel for both states filed a joint motion to vacate an earlier decree. The Court granted that motion, denied a motion by Ward Goodrich and others to intervene, and replaced the former decree with a new, detailed order setting who may divert water and how much they may take.
Reasoning
The immediate question the Court addressed was whether to grant the parties’ joint motion and enter a new decree. The Court granted the motion and issued a new decree that defines Colorado’s right to divert 49,375 acre-feet of water each year, subject to specific limits: no more than 19,875 acre-feet may be diverted for use outside the Laramie basin, and no more than 29,500 acre-feet for use inside the basin (with no more than 1,800 acre-feet diverted after July 31). The decree also requires certain within-basin water to be used only to irrigate lands shown on an attached Exhibit A, and it gives Wyoming the right to use whatever water remains in the river after Colorado’s authorized diversions.
Real world impact
The new decree creates enforceable annual caps on Colorado’s diversions, restricts late-season and out-of-basin use, narrows which Colorado lands may be irrigated with basin water, and preserves existing Sand Creek appropriations. The Clerk is ordered to send authenticated copies of the decree to the chief magistrates of Wyoming and Colorado.
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