Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/466/765
Timestamp: 2014-04-20 00:50:10
Document Index: 560691217

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 8', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 8', '§ 4', '§ 15', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 8', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 8']

ESCONDIDO MUTUAL WATER COMPANY, et al., Petitioners v. LA JOLLA BAND OF MISSION INDIANS et al. | LII / Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court aboutsearch liibulletin subscribe previews ESCONDIDO MUTUAL WATER COMPANY, et al., Petitioners v. LA JOLLA BAND OF MISSION INDIANS et al.
466 U.S. 765 (104 S.Ct. 2105, 80 L.Ed.2d 753)
Argued: March 26, 1984.
Section 4(e) of the Federal Power Act (FPA) authorizes the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) to issue licenses for the construction, operation, and maintenance of hydroelectric project works located on the public lands and reservations of the United States, including lands held in trust for Indians. The section contains a proviso that such licenses shall be issued "within any reservation" only after a finding by the Commission that the license will not interfere or be inconsistent with the purpose for which the reservation was created or acquired, and "shall be subject to and contain such conditions as the Secretary of the department under whose supervision such reservation falls shall deem necessary for the adequate protection and utilization of such reservations." Section 8 of the Mission Indian Relief Act of 1891 (MIRA), pursuant to which six reservations were established for respondent Indian Bands (respondents), provides that any United States citizen, firm, or corporation may contract with the Bands for the right to construct a flume, ditch, canal, pipe, or other appliances for the conveyance of water over, across, or through their reservations, which contract shall not be valid unless approved by the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) under such conditions as he may see fit to impose. When the original license covering hydroelectric facilities located on or near the six reservations, including a canal that crosses respondent La Jolla, Rincon, and San Pasqual Bands' reservations, was about to expire, petitioner Escondido Mutual Water Co. (Mutual) and petitioner city of Escondido filed an application with the Commission for a new license. Thereafter the Secretary requested that the Commission recommend federal takeover of the project, and respondents applied for a nonpower license. After hearings on the competing applications, an Administrative Law Judge concluded that the project was not subject to the Commission's licensing jurisdiction. The Commission reversed and granted a license to Mutual, Escondido, and petitioner Vista Irrigation District, which had been using the canal in question. The Court of Appeals in turn reversed the Commission, holding, contrary to the Commission, (1) that § 4(e) of the FPA required the Commission to accept without modification any license conditions recommended by the Secretary; (2) that the Commission was required to satisfy its § 4(e) obligations with respect to all six of the reservations and not just the three through which the canal passes; and (3) that § 8 of the MIRA required the licensees to obtain right-of-way permits from respondent La Jolla, Rincon, and San Pasqual Bands before using the license facilities located on their reservations.
1. The plain command § 4(e) of the FPA requires the Commission to accept without modification conditions that the Secretary deems necessary for the adequate protection and utilization of the reservations. Nothing in the legislative history or statutory scheme is inconsistent with this plain command. Pp. 772-779.
2. But the Commission must make its "no inconsistency or interference" findings and include the Secretary's conditions in the license only with respect to projects located "within" the geographical boundaries of a federal reservation. It is clear that Congress concluded that reservations were not entitled to the protection of § 4(e)'s proviso unless some of the licensed works were actually within the reservation. Thus, the Court of Appeals erred in holding that the Commission's § 4(e) obligation to accept the Secretary's conditions and to make such findings applied to the three reservations on which no licensed facilities were located. Pp. 780-784.
3. Section 8 of the MIRA does not require licensees to obtain respondents' consent before they operate licensed facilities located on reservation lands. While § 8 gave respondents authority to determine whether to grant rights-of-way for water projects, that authority did not include the power to override Congress' subsequent decision in enacting the FPA that all lands, including tribal land, could, upon compliance with the FPA, be utilized to facilitate licensed hydroelectric projects. Pp. 784-787.
692 F.2d 1223 (9th Cir.1982) and 701 F.2d 826 (9th Cir.1983), affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
Paul D. Engstrand, San Diego, Cal., for petitioners.
Jerome M. Feit, Washington, D.C., for respondent Federal Energy Regulatory Com'n, urging reversal.
Elliott Schulder, Washington, D.C., for respondent Secretary of Interior.
Robert S. Pelcyger, Boulder, Colo., for respondents Mission Indian Bands.
to issue licenses for the construction, operation and maintenance of hydroelectric project works located on the public lands and reservations of the United States, including lands held in trust for Indians. The conditions upon which such licenses may issue are contained in § 4(e) and other provisions of the FPA. The present case involves a dispute among the Commission, the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary), and several Bands of the Mission Indians over the role each is to play in determining what conditions an applicant must meet in order to obtain a license to utilize hydroelectric facilities located on or near six Mission Indian Reservations.
* The San Luis Rey River originates near the Palomar Mountains in northern San Diego County, Cal. In its natural condition, it flows through the reservations of the La Jolla, Rincon, and Pala Bands of Mission Indians. The reservations of the Pauma, Yuima,
Following the enactment of the Federal Water Power Act of 1920, ch. 285, 41 Stat. 1063 (codified as Part I of the FPA, 16 U.S.C. 791a et seq.), Mutual applied to the Commission for a license covering its two hydroelectric facilities. In 1924, the Commission issued a 50-year license covering the Escondido diversion dam and canal, Lake Wohlford, and the Rincon and Bear Valley powerhouses.
Later that year, the La Jolla, Rincon, and San Pasqual Bands, acting pursuant to § 15(b) of the FPA,
an Administrative Law Judge concluded that the project was not subject to the Commission's licensing jurisdiction because the power aspects of the project were insignificant in comparison to the project's primary purposeconveying water for domestic and irrigation consumption. 6 FERC ¶ 63,008 (1979).
The Commission, however, reversed that decision and granted a new 30-year license to Mutual, Escondido, and the Vista Irrigation District, which had been using the canal for some time to convey water pumped from Lake Henshaw, a lake located some nine miles above Mutual's diversion dam. 6 FERC ¶ 61,189 (1979).
In its licensing decision, the Commission made three rulings that are the focal point of this case. First, the Commission ruled that § 4(e) of the FPA did not require it to accept without modification conditions which the Secretary deemed necessary for the adequate protection and utilization of the reservations.
not be transported through the licensed facilities without the written consent of the five Bands, id., at 61,145, and n. 147. Other conditions proposed by the Secretary were similarly rejected or modified. See id., at 147-155. Second, although it imposed some conditions on the licensees in order to "preclude any possible interference or inconsistency of the power license . . . with the purpose for which the La Jolla, Rincon, and San Pasqual reservations were created,"
id., at 61,424-61,425, the Commission refused to impose similar conditions for the benefit of the Pala, Pauma, and Yuima Reservations, ruling that its § 4(e) obligation in that respect applies only to reservations that are physically occupied by project facilities. Finally, the Commission rejected the arguments of the Bands and the Secretary that a variety of statutes, including § 8 of the MIRA, required the licensees to obtain the "consent" of the Bands before the license could issue.
On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed each of these three rulings. Escondido Mutual Water Co. v. FERC, 692 F.2d 1223, amended, 701 F.2d 826 (1983). The court held that § 4(e) requires the Commission to accept without modification any license conditions recommended by the Secretary, subject to subsequent judicial review of the propriety of the conditions, that the Commission is required to satisfy its § 4(e) obligations with respect to all six of the reservations affected by the project and not just the three through which the canal passes, and that § 8 of the MIRA requires the licensees to obtain right-of-way permits from the La Jolla, Rincon, and San Pasqual Bands before using the licensed facilities located on the reservations.
Mutual, Escondido, and Vista filed the present petition for certiorari, which we granted, 464 U.S. 913, 104 S.Ct. 272, 78 L.Ed.2d 253 (1983), challenging all three of the Court of Appeals' rulings.