Opinion ID: 1253871
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: All Water Appropriable and All Water Subject to Claims Based Upon Federal Law

Text: ¶ 11 A subflow standard, once it has been established, will serve to identify well-users who pump water subject to prior appropriation. But this adjudication is not limited to water subject to prior appropriation; it extends also to water subject to claims based on federal law. An adjudication such as this cannot achieve its comprehensive purpose without quantifying and prioritizing federal, as well as state law, claims. Since there is not enough water to meet everyone's demands, a determination of priorities and a quantification of the water rights accompanying those priorities must be made. Obviously, such a task can be accomplished only in a single proceeding in which all substantial claimants are before the court so that all claims may be examined, priorities determined, and allocations made. See United States v. Super. Ct., 144 Ariz. 265, 270, 697 P.2d 658, 663 (1985). ¶ 12 Approximately two-thirds of the land in Arizona is federally held, much of it in trust for Indian tribes. See ARIZONA STATISTICAL ABSTRACT 173-177 (1993 ed.). The McCarran Amendment permits us to include federal claimants in the adjudication, for it permits the United States to participate in state court proceedings that comprehensively adjudicate rights to the use of water of a river system or other source. 43 U.S.C. § 666(a). In conformity with the McCarran Amendment, our general adjudication statute, A.R.S. § 45-252(A), authorizes determination of the nature, extent and relative priority of the water rights of all persons in the river system and source. And A.R.S. § 45-251(4), as we have indicated, defines river system and source to include not only appropriable water, but all water subject to claims based upon federal law. [5] ¶ 13 The rub is that, in order to adjudicate and quantify water rights based upon federal law, the Arizona courts must afford federal claimants the benefit, when state and federal law conflict, of federal substantive law. See Arizona v. San Carlos Apache Tribe, 463 U.S. 545, 571, 103 S.Ct. 3201, 77 L.Ed.2d 837 (1983) (state courts must apply federal substantive law to measure federal rights in state adjudication); accord United States v. Super. Ct., 144 Ariz. at 276-77, 697 P.2d at 669-70. And the particular issues that we now consider arise pursuant to a doctrine of federal substantive law known variously as the reserved water rights, the reserved rights, or the implied reservation doctrine. ¶ 14 The reserved water rights doctrine provides: [W]hen the Federal Government withdraws its land from the public domain and reserves it for a federal purpose, the Government, by implication, reserves appurtenant water then unappropriated to the extent needed to accomplish the purpose of the reservation. In so doing the United States acquires a reserved right in unappropriated water which vests on the date of the reservation and is superior to the rights of future appropriators. Cappaert v. United States, 426 U.S. 128, 138, 96 S.Ct. 2062, 48 L.Ed.2d 523 (1976). The doctrine applies not only to Indian reservations, but to other federal enclaves, such as national parks, forests, monuments, military bases, and wildlife preserves. Id. at 138-39, 96 S.Ct. 2062; Arizona v. California, 373 U.S. 546, 601, 83 S.Ct. 1468, 10 L.Ed.2d 542 (1963).