Opinion ID: 2533766
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Did the Project act reasonably in its use of the easement?

Text: The district court held that the use of Hubbard Reservoir to be an unreasonable irrigation practice because it wasted water. Specifically, the district court found that only about six percent of the water had been used by downstream irrigation users and that approximately eighty percent of the reservoir's capacity was lost through percolation. The district court further found that Lake Lowell was available to the Project for storing excess river flow as an alternative to filling Hubbard Reservoir. Of particular significance, the district court determined that filling Hubbard Reservoir violated Idaho's policy against wasting water, expressed in I.C. § 18-4302 and other code sections. Although the 1979 judgment is not binding upon Spencer or McKay, the Project must conform its conduct to that judgment which provides for the filling of the reservoir by the Project to a level of 2,771 feet [deleted coma] for any routine irrigation operations it may desire. The district court's findings, however, indicate that the district court substituted its judgment regarding the reasonableness of the Project's use of the flowage easement for the discretion conferred to the Project by the express terms of the easement. As we previously held, infra, the filling of the Hubbard Reservoir was a routine irrigation operation; and the Project cannot be found to be negligent therefore. McKay raised the issue of waste, asserting that use of the easement that resulted in waste was per se a breach of the Project's duty to use the easement reasonably. The district court agreed, identifying various statutes, which proscribe waste as a matter of policy in Idaho, as the source of that duty. Idaho Code § 18-4302 provides: any person or persons who shall willfully and wantonly waste any of the waters of any stream, the waters of which are used for irrigation, to the detriment of any claimant of the water for irrigation purposes ... are guilty of a misdemeanor. The damages alleged by McKay stem from the Project filling the reservoir with water, not from any resulting waste of that water. The fact the use of the water is wasteful did not increase the burden of using the flowage easement to the servient estate (McKay). The owner of an easement is not liable for injuries resulting from the ordinary use of the easement as a use reasonable within the terms of the easement. Rehwalt v. American Falls Reservoir Dist. No. 2, 97 Idaho 634, 550 P.2d 137 (1976). By this holding, we do not condone the waste of water. As operator of the diversion and storage system, the Project is not an insurer against all damages arising from [its storage system] but is liable when negligent in the construction, maintenance and operation thereof. Kunz v. Utah Power & Light Co., 117 Idaho 901, 906, 792 P.2d 926, 931 (1990) (citation omitted). The Project filled the Hubbard Reservoir for routine irrigation purposes and other beneficial uses and did not exceed the prescribed limitations of the easement. When the irrigation reservoir was filled to that level, McKay nevertheless planted a cash crop below the 2,771-foot prescribed limit and requested damages for the resultant loss of his crop. Nothing contained in this evidence shows the Project did anything other than use the reservoir for its ordinary use (storage of water) or use it reasonably within the terms of its original grant (inundation by waters of the Hubbard Reservoir or the November 1, 1979 Judgment) or any reason to protect persons or property from the hazards naturally connected with that use (filling to 2771 feet). Coulsen v. Aberdeen-Springfield Canal Co., 47 Idaho 619, 631, 277 P. 542, 546 (1929). In that the Project used its defined flowage easement in the Hubbard Reservoir for the purpose for which it was created, we conclude that there was no breach of a duty owed to the servient estate under these circumstances and thus no negligence on the part of the Project. We find the language of the easement unambiguous and hold that the Project reasonably acted within the confines of the easement. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's finding that the Project was negligent in its use of the easement.