Opinion ID: 2612687
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960

Text: Counsel for the United States claims that the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, 16 U.S.C. งง 528-31 (1976) (MUSYA), reserved additional water for the existing national forests with a 1960 priority date for recreational and wildlife conservation purposes. The master-referee concluded that MUSYA broadened the reservation purposes of existing national forests so that water sufficient to satisfy outdoor recreation, range, and fish and wildlife purposes was reserved. Subsequent to the master-referee's report, but prior to the water court's ruling, the United States Supreme Court decided United States v. New Mexico, 438 U.S. 696, 98 S.Ct. 3012, 57 L.Ed.2d 1052 (1978). The water court, relying on New Mexico, held that MUSYA reserved no additional water for the national forests, beyond that amount reserved in the Organic Act of 1897 establishing the forests. Thus, the federal government was awarded no water rights for maintenance of minimum stream flows and lake levels necessary for the MUSYA purposes. We agree with the water court's ruling that New Mexico forecloses any claims for reserved water rights based on MUSYA and, accordingly, affirm its decision. The United States claims in these appeals that it never had the opportunity in New Mexico to argue that MUSYA effected an additional reservation of water with a 1960 priority date for existing national forest lands. Instead, MUSYA had been presented in New Mexico as support for the federal government's argument that Congress always intended broad purposes for national forests. The United States also takes the position that the MUSYA declaration in the majority opinion in New Mexico is dictum. That position is in accordance with the dissenting opinion in New Mexico which contended that the MUSYA issue was not argued on appeal and therefore could not be a basis for the Court's disposition. [38] Whether the MUSYA declaration in New Mexico technically is dictum is immaterial now; the majority opinion in New Mexico directly addressed the issue and we are bound by the pronouncement of the United States Supreme Court on this point. MUSYA codified the long-standing practice that the national forests should be administered for the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run. [39] Congress was convinced that modern principles of multiple use and sustained yield would lead to better management of public forest holdings. MUSYA was intended to provide authority for the forest service to broaden its forests management practices. See H.R. Rep. No. 1551, 86th Cong., 2d Sess. 3 (1960), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1960, p. 2377; see generally Coggins, supra note 5. Section 528 of MUSYA provides in part: [I]t is the policy of the Congress that national forests are established and shall be administered for outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, and wildlife and fish purposes. The purposes of this Act are declared to be supplemental to, but not in derogation of, the purposes for which the national forests were established as set forth in the Act of June 4, 1897. 16 U.S.C. ง 528 (1976). Section 528 makes it obvious that Congress intended to expand the purposes for which the national forests are administered. Congress made it equally clear, however, that the 1897 Act purposes โsecuring favorable conditions of water flows and furnishing a continuous supply of timberโwould not be expanded by the 1960 legislation. [40] Against that statutory background, the United States Supreme Court held in New Mexico that Congress did not intend in enacting MUSYA to reserve water in existing national forests for the additional purposes there established: While we conclude that the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960 was intended to broaden the purposes for which national forests had previously been administered, we agree that Congress did not intend to thereby expand the reserved rights of the United States.       Congress intended the national forests to be administered for broader purposes after 1960 but there is no indication that it believed the new purposes to be so crucial as to require a reservation of additional water. By reaffirming the primacy of a favorable stream flow, it indicated the opposite intent. 438 U.S. at 713-715, 98 S.Ct. at 3020-21 (footnotes omitted). The Supreme Court based its conclusion on two factors. First, it found that Congress intended MUSYA only to supplement the original national forest purposes of timber protection and conservation of water flows. The additional MUSYA purposes were not to impair effectuation of the original purposes of the national forests. See 16 U.S.C. ง 528. The Court concluded that if the MUSYA purposes were used as a basis for instream flow rights to the federal government, then a substantial amount of water would be lost for irrigation and domestic use. As a result, minimum flow rights for recreational or fish habitat purposes would be in derogation of the original national forest purposes of securing favorable conditions of water flow. 438 U.S. at 715, 98 S.Ct. at 3021. The Court was convinced that Congress intended to reserve water for the primary purposes of existing national forests (the Organic Act of 1897 purposes), but no water was reserved for secondary purposes added by MUSYA. Id. [41] Second, the Supreme Court concluded that Congress intended to defer to state water law unless a clear contrary intent to reserve water could be found. Nothing in the legislative history or language of MUSYA indicates any intent to reserve additional water. The Court was hesitant to expand a doctrine built on implication without strong legislative support. Id. Congress recognized the severe water shortages in the West and limited its reservation of water to the traditional national forest purposes. Id. We are convinced that the implied-reservation-of-water doctrine must be narrowly construed. Additional federal water rights in Colorado may reduce water available to satisfy long-held adjudicated water rights, especially in streams which have been fully appropriated. [42] When Congress passed MUSYA, it was aware of the reserved rights doctrine. See, e.g., Federal Power Commission v. Oregon, 349 U.S. 435, 75 S.Ct. 832, 99 L.Ed. 1215 (1955); Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564, 28 S.Ct. 207, 52 L.Ed. 340 (1908); United States v. Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., 174 U.S. 690, 19 S.Ct. 770, 43 L.Ed. 1136 (1899). Congress, however, chose not to reserve additional water explicitly. In the face of its silence, we must assume that Congress intended the federal government to proceed like any other appropriator and to apply for or purchase water rights when there was a need for water. The federal government has the power to act in condemnation proceedings if its wishes to obtain water outside the state appropriation system for additional national forest purposes. [43] Our reading of United States v. New Mexico and MUSYA is bolstered by the Department of the Interior's interpretation of the same case law and statutory materials. A recent Department of the Interior memorandum opinion interprets the reserved rights doctrine as we do: The unavoidable conclusion to be reached from [the reserved rights] cases is that Congress gave the states broad power to provide for the administration of water rights which would only be limited where necessary to accomplish the original purpose of a congressionally mandated reservation or to protect the navigation servitude. As a result of this implicit grant of power, the presumption is that state law will control all non-reserved claims unless Congress provides otherwise. If Congress wishes to abandon its historical practice of deference it must explicitly exercise its power. While the Congress has retained the right to amend these laws and reassert legislative control over a portion or all of the remaining unappropriated water in a state, it has chosen not to do so. In construing land management statutes, this deference to state law rises to a presumption that the United States and its agencies must acquire water rights in accordance with state substantive and procedural law unless necessary for the original purpose of a reservation.  88 Interior Dec. 1055, 1064 (1981) (footnote omitted) (emphasis added). The interpretations of the Supreme Court and the Department of the Interior on the applicability of MUSYA to federal reserved water rights dictate the result. While we are sympathetic with the environmental, aesthetic, and recreational goals which prompted these requests for federal reserved water rights, we read United States v. New Mexico, supra , as dispositive of the claims of the United States. We conclude therefore that MUSYA does not reserve additional water for outdoor recreation, wildlife, or fish purposes. We believe that Congress intended that the federal government proceed under state law in the same manner as any other public or private appropriator. Accordingly, we affirm the water court's determination.