The Court upheld the authority of the Ground water Management District in appropriating water. The Court also ruled that farmers can average their water usage over a five year period to make up for dry years. This case was a historical recognition of the relationship between streamflow and ground water. The U.S. Supreme Court rules for Kansas that Colorado had allowed post-Compact well pumping in Colorado against their Compact agreement. The Court said that upstream users must abide by compact regulating the flow of water.
Damages are yet to be determined.
Their application for a permit was denied. Kansas Wildlife and Parks Department, which maintains Cheyenne Bottoms, said that farmers in the area were using more than their entitled share of water for irrigation. Wildlife and Parks wanted a 100 mile stretch of Wet Walnut Creek designated an Intensive Ground water Use Control Area in Barton, Rush and Ness Counties Water rights were issued to Cheyenne Bottoms in 1948 and to irrigators after 1965. The 1949 Arkansas River Compact between Kansas and Colorado was intended to protect the flow of river water into Kansas. The average annual volume of water at the Kansas-Colorado line from 1949 to 1973 was 121,300 acre feet of water per year.