Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/320/383/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 08:37:16+00:00

Document:
1. Colorado is entitled to an injunction against further prosecution of suits by the Kansas user against Colorado users. P. 320 U. S. 391.
2. Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U. S. 46, made no allocation between the States of the waters of the river. P. 320 U. S. 391.
3. Kansas is not entitled on the record to an apportionment in second feet or acre feet. P. 320 U. S. 391.
4. In controversies involving the relative rights of States, the burden on the complaining State is much heavier than that generally required to be borne by private parties, and this Court will intervene only where a case is fully and clearly proved. P. 320 U. S. 393.
5. Kansas' allegations that Colorado's use has materially increased since the decision in Kansas v. Colorado, and that the increase has worked a serious detriment to the substantial interests of Kansas, are not sustained by the evidence. P. 320 U. S. 400.
6. Relief other than the restraint of further prosecution of suits by the Kansas user against Colorado users is denied to both States. P. 320 U. S. 400.
Original suit in equity by Colorado against Kansas and the Finney County (Kansas) Water Users' Association.
This suit is the latest of a series of litigations between Kansas or her citizens, and Colorado, or her citizens, concerning their respective rights to the beneficial use of the waters of the Arkansas River.
The river has its origin in central Colorado, and is a mountain torrent for 130 miles to a point near Canon City where it enters a foothill region ending near Pueblo. Thence it traverses the high plains of eastern Colorado and western Kansas. In the areas mentioned, the stream is nonnavigable.
and divert them between Canon City and the Kansas state line for irrigating nonriparian arid lands; that, by 1891, all the natural flow, and much of the flood waters, had been appropriated in Colorado, so that the average flow had been greatly reduced and the natural flow completely cut off.
Colorado replied that the stream was not continuous except at times of flood; that, in a state of nature, its bed east of Pueblo was frequently dry; that Colorado and her citizens had diverted and used only the perennial flow above Canon City, and what had been done in effect conserved water for delivery into Kansas. She denied she had substantially diminished the flow of the river at the state line. She asserted she was entitled to consume the entire flow; but alleged that, in any view, her total appropriations did not amount to an infringement of Kansas' rights calling for judicial interference.
were to be destroyed or materially affected, Kansas must show not merely some technical right, but one which carried corresponding benefits.
On examination of the proofs, the court concluded that diversions authorized by Colorado embraced more water than the total flow at Canon City. It found, however, that no clear showing was made as to what surplus water, if any, was contributed by the tributaries below that point, or as to the proportion of the diverted water returned to the river by seepage. The opinion described the diversions in each state, analyzed the use made of the water and the benefits derived from it in each, considered population tables and agricultural statistics bearing upon the growth of the communities adjacent to the river in each, and stated conclusions, now material, as follows: that the result of Colorado's appropriations had been beneficial reclamation of many acres; that, while the influence of Colorado's diversions had been of perceptible injury to portions of the Arkansas valley in Kansas, yet, to the great body of the valley, the diminution of flow had worked little, if any, detriment; that, regarding the interests of both states and the right of each to receive benefit through irrigation and otherwise from the waters of the stream, the court was not satisfied that Kansas had made out a case entitling it to a decree. The court added that, if depletion by Colorado continued to increase, there would come a time when Kansas might justly say that there was no longer an equitable distribution of benefits, and might rightly call for relief against Colorado and her citizens. Accordingly, the bill was dismissed without prejudice to future action by Kansas. The taking of evidence ended June 16, 1905, and the decision of the court was announced May 13, 1907.
of priorities as between various Kansas users of the river water. One of the defendants, the United States Irrigating Company, removed the cause to the United States District Court. A consent decree was entered May 16, 1911, which provided for the allocation and rotation of use amongst certain, but not all, the Kansas ditches, including the Farmers' Ditch. It was, however, provided that the settlement should remain binding upon the parties only until the adjudication of other litigation next to be noticed.
August 27, 1910, United States Irrigating Company sued Graham Ditch Co. and others holding Colorado priorities in the United States District Court for Colorado to obtain an adjudication of priorities as between Kansas users and Colorado users. The Finney County Association was denied leave to intervene. Evidence was taken, but the suit was settled by a contract of February 19, 1916. By this settlement, the Colorado defendants agreed to recognize priorities as of August 27, 1910, for all the Kansas ditches in Finney County except the Farmers' Ditch; not to apply for, or claim, priorities for storage purposes on the Purgatoire River, a tributary of the Arkansas, or below the mouth of the Purgatoire, of a date earlier than August 27, 1910, and to pay the costs of suit and an additional sum to the Kansas interests. The Kansas ditches agreed to accept the priority date of August 27, 1910, and the quantities of water specified in the contract, as a definition and determination of their rights. The defendants complied with the terms of the contract.
for similar relief. January 24, 1928, Colorado filed the present bill against Kansas and the Finney County Association.
After formal recitals, the bill refers to our earlier decision, states that, in reliance upon it, money has been spent in the improvement of the irrigation systems in Colorado, recites the prior and the pending private litigation against Colorado appropriators, alleges that the establishment of an interstate priority schedule sought in the pending suits would disrupt and destroy Colorado's administration of the waters of the Arkansas basin and result in conflict of state authority, asserts that no proper settlement of the relative rights of the States can be obtained in suits by Kansas appropriators against Colorado appropriators, outlines other injury to Colorado threatened by prosecution of the pending cases to judgment, and prays that the Finney County Association be enjoined from further pressing those suits, that Kansas and her citizens be enjoined from litigating, or attempting to litigate, the relative rights of the two states and their citizens to the waters of the river on claims similar to those made by the Association in its pending suits, and that the rights of Colorado and her citizens as determined by the judgment in Kansas v. Colorado be protected.
County Association, to their appropriations, that the rights of her citizens and residents to divert water from the river for irrigation be decreed in second feet, and that Colorado, her officers, agents, and citizens be perpetually enjoined from diverting any waters from the river or its tributaries in Colorado until the rights of Kansas, her citizens and residents, are satisfied.
The Finney County Association filed an answer admitting and denying averments of the bill and affirmatively praying that Colorado and her citizens be enjoined from diverting water from the river until the Association's right to 250 second feet is satisfied. The issues were made up by Colorado's reply.
Pursuant to our order, evidence was taken by a Commissioner. Thereupon, the cause was referred to a Master with leave to take additional evidence, and direction, in the light of all the evidence, to state findings of fact, conclusions of law, and to recommend a form of decree. The evidence consists of some seven thousand typewritten pages of testimony and 368 exhibits covering thousands of pages.
The Master states that the "evidence is voluminous and conflicting on many of the material issues of fact," but his report contains no discussion or analysis of the proofs. Apart from formal recitals, the report consists of fourteen findings of fact -- more properly conclusions of fact -- nine conclusions of law, and a recommended form of decree. Each party has filed exceptions.
conditions which existed at the time of her earlier suit?
The Master concluded that the first question should be answered in the affirmative. Kansas has not excepted to the conclusion or to the corresponding provisions of the proposed decree.
Bearing upon the second question, the Master found that "the average annual natural flow of the river and its tributaries" is 1,240,000 acre feet, and the "average annual dependable and fairly continuous water supply and flow" 1,110,000 acre feet. He recommends that the dependable flow be allocated 925,000 acre feet to Colorado and 185,000 acre feet to Kansas, 150,000 thereof between April 1 and October 1, and 35,000 between October 1 and April 1 of each year, -- that is, five-sixths to Colorado and one-sixth to Kansas. He submits a form of decree embodying this allocation and adjusting required deliveries in the same proportions upward or downward in accordance with annual flows in excess of, or less than, the stated average annual dependable flow. He has not attempted to define flood waters or the extent to which they are unusable by either state, and suggests no provision whereby their occurrence may be taken into account in defining Colorado's obligation to deliver water to Kansas. The form of decree requires measurement of flow by gauges, one at Canon City and the other at the mouth of the Purgatoire, and deliveries to Kansas prorated to the total of the flows at those points.
would entail serious and unjustified damage to her interests, if indeed compliance with its terms were possible.
"There has been since the taking of testimony in the case of Kansas against Colorado cited in 206 U. S. 206 U.S. 46, in 1907, a material increase in the river depletion by Colorado of the water supply of the Arkansas River, which has been consumed and used by Colorado users for irrigation purposes and which has diminished the flow of the water into the Kansas, and that, by reason thereof, there has been injuries to the substantial interests in Kansas."
No exception is taken to the Master's recommendation that an injunction issue against further prosecution of the Finney County Association suits against Colorado users. In our view, such an injunction is appropriate, and should be granted.
Colorado urges that our decision in Kansas v. Colorado, supra, amounted to an allocation of the flow of the Arkansas River between the two States. We cannot accept this view. In that case, Kansas labored under a burden of proof applicable in litigation between quasi-sovereign states, of which more hereafter. The dismissal of her bill resulted from the conclusion that she had failed to sustain the burden. But, from the decision then rendered it follows that, unless Kansas can show a present situation materially different from that disclosed in the earlier case, she cannot now obtain relief.
We come now to the vital question whether Kansas has made good her claim to relief founded on the charge that Colorado has, since our prior decision, increased depletion of the water supply to the material damage of Kansas' substantial interests. The question must be answered in the light of rules of decision appropriate to the quality of the parties and the nature of the suit.
is using, or threatening to use, more than its equitable share of the benefits of a stream, all the factors which create equities in favor of one state or the other must be weighed as of the date when the controversy is mooted.
On this record, there can be no doubt that a decree such as the Master recommends, or an amendment or enlargement of that decree in the form Kansas asks, would inflict serious damage on existing agricultural interests in Colorado. How great the injury would be it is difficult to determine, but certainly the proposed decree would operate to deprive some citizens of Colorado, to some extent, of their means of support. It might indeed result in the abandonment of valuable improvements and actual migration from farms. Through practice of irrigation, Colorado's agriculture in the basin has grown steadily for fifty years. With this development has gone a large investment in canals, reservoirs, and farms. The progress has been open. The facts were of common knowledge.
The controversy was litigated in 1901. Kansas was denied relief in 1907. The dispute between appropriators in the two states was brought into court in 1910, and settled in 1916. The Finney County Association sued Colorado appropriators in 1916 and 1923. Even if Kansas' claims of increased depletion and ensuing damage are taken at face value, it is nevertheless evident that, while improvements based upon irrigation went forward in Colorado for twenty-one years, Kansas took no action until Colorado filed the instant complaint in 1928.
of flow across the state line, and injury to the substantial interests of Kansas. His report does not state what he considers material, or the extent of the diminution of flow, or the interests of Kansas which have been injured and the extent of the injury. We must therefore turn to the evidence to resolve the issues.
1895-1899 of 300,000 acre feet, for 1900-1904, of 470,000 acre feet, and, for 1905-1909, of 454,000 acre feet, or an annual average over the total period, 1895-1909, of 408,000 acre feet. On his own estimates, the claimed average annual depletion of 300,000 acre feet could not have taken place. Moreover, the force of this evidence is weakened by Kansas' allegations in Kansas v. Colorado, supra. In her bill in that case, she alleged Colorado had totally destroyed the normal flow of the river exclusive of floods, whereas she now asserts that the flow at the time of the earlier suit was such that Colorado has been able to deplete it on an annual average of 300,000 acre feet.
The records of Colorado's consumption and ditch diversions, and the Colorado and Kansas exhibits showing the divertible and usable state line flow, rebut such an increase as Kansas asserts. Kansas' expert witness himself testified that the diversion records show no material change in Colorado diversions since 1905, and that, if acreage in Colorado has expanded under the ditches on the main stem of the river, it has done so because of an improved duty of water; that, during the period, the river gains due to return flow have increased, the consumptive use of water has declined, and, relatively, the stream flows have improved.
the amount of divertible flow at times when water is most needed for irrigation. Calculations of average annual flow, which include flood flows, are therefore not helpful in ascertaining the dependable supply of water usable for irrigation. That supply has, in Colorado, been supplemented by the extensive use of reservoirs for storage of flood waters and winter flows not usable or needed for irrigation. Though western Kansas affords sites for similar storage reservoirs, but one small basin has been constructed in that State. On the other hand, the storage in Colorado, and the release of stored water to supplement the natural flow of the stream in times of need, operates by seepage and return to the channel to stabilize and improve the flow at the state line and, to that extent, benefits irrigation in Kansas.
of return flows have been made which indicate a steady reduction in the quantity of water consumed per acre of irrigated land.
Practically all of the affected Kansas ditches are in three western counties. Tables taken from the United States census show that, in 1899, acreage irrigated in these counties was 6% of that irrigated in the Colorado basin. In 1909, it was 7%, in 1929, 9.7%, and in 1939, 10.7%. It seems that Colorado cannot have depleted the usable supply passing into Kansas if acreage under irrigation is any measure of depletion.
Whatever may be said of the practices of Colorado since 1905, Kansas is not entitled to relief unless she shows they clearly have entailed serious damage to her substantial interests and those of her citizens. It is not necessary to quote the findings of this court made in the earlier case. We need only say they disclose that some ditches in western Kansas has been abandoned for lack of available water, and all ditches were suffering from shortages of flow. The court pointed out that Colorado had authorized diversions in excess of the flow at Canon City. And the record in the present case indicates that, except for seepage and return flow, the appropriations Colorado has authorized from the basin, as a whole, exceed the available dependable flow of the stream and its tributaries, and this appears to have been true also in 1901. It appears, nevertheless, that, since 1904, an increased quantity of usable water has passed the state line, for it is testified by Kansas' expert witness that, between 1895 and 1902, no divertible water passed the line and none between 1903 and 1907, except in 1903 and 1905, whereas, in each year since 1908, divertible water has crossed the state line in varying quantities and, in most years, in substantial amounts.
deprived Kansas of her equitable share of the flow. The evidence is that the acreage now irrigated in Kansas lies close to the river and along the river bottom. The land claimed to be susceptible of irrigation extends many miles from the bed of the river. We are asked to speculate as to how much of this land would have been put under irrigation under more favorable circumstances.
As has been pointed out, despite Colorado's alleged increased depletion, the acreage under irrigation in western Kansas through existing ditches has steadily increased, over the period 1895-1939, from approximately 15,000 acres to approximately 56,000 acres. Moreover, the arid lands in western Kansas are underlaid at shallow depths with great quantities of groundwater available for irrigation by pumping at low initial and maintenance cost. There is persuasive testimony that farmers who could be served from existing ditches have elected not to take water therefrom, but to install pumping systems because of lower cost.
for irrigation. But there is doubt whether the privilege is not restricted to riparian owners in some portions of the state. The Supreme Court of Kansas has held that, where a title originates in a grant antedating the Act of 1886, the right of appropriation is limited by the common law as to riparian rights, which are rights of property derived from the original patent or deed in the line of title. [Footnote 15] It seems that title to much of the land along the Arkansas Valley in western Kansas was originally granted or patented prior to 1886. The brief and argument of Kansas, while referring to the statutes of the state authorizing appropriation, make no reference to the Kansas decisions and no showing with respect to the right of nonriparian owners to appropriate waters against objection by other such owners.
The official census figures submitted bearing upon population of the western counties of Kansas, and the agricultural production in them, give no support to a claim that the inhabitants have suffered for lack of arable and productive land. Generally speaking, the population has steadily increased, and the agricultural production has also risen throughout the period in question.
All these considerations persuade us that Kansas has not sustained her allegations that Colorado's use has materially increased, and that the increase has worked a serious detriment to the substantial interests of Kansas.
A decree should be entered enjoining the further prosecution of the Finney County Association's suits, and dismissing the prayers of both States for other relief. The parties may submit such a decree.
The court overruled a demurrer to the bill and required Colorado to answer. Kansas v. Colorado, 185 U. S. 125.
Missouri v. Illinois, 180 U. S. 208; Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U. S. 46, 206 U. S. 95-96.
See Washington v. Oregon, 214 U. S. 205, 214 U. S. 218; Minnesota v. Wisconsin, 252 U. S. 273, 252 U. S. 283; New York v. New Jersey, 256 U. S. 296, 256 U. S. 313. Compare the Colorado River Compact of Nov. 24, 1922, authorized by Act of August 19, 1921, 42 Stat. 171, and dismissed in Arizona v. California, 292 U. S. 341, 292 U. S. 345, and compare Hinderlider v. La Plata River Co., 304 U. S. 92.
Kansas v. Colorado, supra, 206 U. S. 100.
Kansas v. Colorado, supra, 206 U. S. 85, 206 U. S. 101-102; Connecticut v. Massachusetts, 282 U. S. 660, 282 U. S. 669-670; Washington v. Oregon, 297 U. S. 517, 297 U. S. 523-526.
Missouri v. Illinois, 200 U. S. 496, 200 U. S. 520-521; New York v. New Jersey, 256 U. S. 296, 256 U. S. 309; North Dakota v. Minnesota, 263 U. S. 365, 263 U. S. 374; Connecticut v. Massachusetts, 282 U. S. 660, 282 U. S. 669; Alabama v. Arizona, 291 U. S. 286, 291 U. S. 292; Washington v. Oregon, 297 U. S. 517, 297 U. S. 522.
Washington v. Oregon, 297 U. S. 517, 297 U. S. 526.
In computing average annual flows, flood waters are included in the reckoning. As later shown, such annual averages do not represent the quantities of water usable by diversion ditches for irrigation.
206 U. S. 206 U.S. 51, 206 U. S. 52, 58-61 [argument of counsel -- omitted].
Ibid., 206 U. S. 95, 206 U. S. 99, 206 U. S. 102, 206 U. S. 104.
Campbell v. Grimes, 62 Kan. 503, 64 P. 62.
Clark v. Allaman, 71 Kan. 206, 80 P. 571.
Frizell v. Bindley, 144 Kan. 84, 58 P.2d 95. Cf. Smith v. Miller, 147 Kan. 40, 75 P.2d 273.

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