Court Opinion

ID: 9431013
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:31:08.431447+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:25.017343
License: Public Domain

Justice White,
with whom Justice Brennan, Justice Marshall, and Justice Stevens join, dissenting.
A State obtains title to the land underlying a navigable water upon its admission to the Union unless Congress’ intention to convey the land to a third party during the territorial period “was definitely declared or otherwise made very plain, or was rendered in clear and especial words, or unless the claim confirmed in terms embraces the land under the waters of the stream.” Montana v. United States, 460 U. S. 544, 552 (1981) (internal quotations omitted; citations omitted). In this case we are presented with the question whether a congressional reservation of land unto the United States during the territorial period has defeated a State’s claim to title under the equal footing doctrine. Contrary to the Court’s opinion and judgment today, I am confident that Congress has the power to prevent ownership of land underlying a navigable water from passing to a new State by reserving the land to itself for an appropriate public purpose and that Congress plainly and specifically expressed its intent to exercise that power with respect to Utah Lake in the Sundry Appropriations Act of Aug. 30, 1890, 26 Stat. 371, 390-392 (1890 Act).
The Property Clause of the Constitution, Art. IV, § 3, cl. 2, is the source of the congressional power. See ante, at 200-201. In Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U. S. 1, 48 (1894), the Court stated:
*210“We cannot doubt. . . that Congress has the power to make grants of lands below high water mark of navigable waters in any Territory of the United States, whenever it becomes necessary to do so in order to perform international obligations, or to effect the improvement of such lands for the promotion and convenience of commerce with foreign nations and among the several States, or to carry out other public purposes appropriate to the objects for which the United States hold the Territory.” (Emphasis added.)
The development of reservoirs for irrigation in the arid West is surely an appropriate public purpose, and there is no reason to distinguish between a conveyance to a third party required for that purpose and a reservation unto the United States for the same purpose. Contrary to petitioner’s position, were I to make a distinction, I would more readily find a reservation constitutionally permissible than a conveyance. In the case of a reservation, the submerged lands retain their sovereign status. See ante, at 195-196. And if Congress later determines that the lands are no longer needed by the Federal Government for a public purpose, it can at that time transfer title to the State.
Pursuant to the Sundry Appropriations Act of Oct. 2,1888, 25 Stat. 505, 526-527 (1888 Act), Major John Wesley Powell, famed western explorer, scientist, and Director of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), set out to identify reservoir sites.1 By letter of April 6, 1889, he reported to the *211Secretary of the Interior that “the site of Utah Lake in Utah County in the Territory of Utah is hereby selected as a reservoir site, together with all lands situate within two statute miles of the border of said lake at high water.” Ante, at 199; App. 19.2 The selection of Utah Lake as a reservoir site was thereafter confirmed in the official reports of the USGS, which were formally transmitted to Congress as required by the 1888 Act.3 In the Tenth Annual Report of USGS to Secretary of the Interior 1888-1889, Part II — Irrigation, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, Major Powell stated: “In April, Mr. Newell was sent to Utah to make certain examinations of Utah Lake with reference to its capacity for a reser*212voir site and to furnish the specifications for its withdrawal as such under the law, so far as the lands covered or overflowed by it or the lands bordering upon it were still public lands.” Id., at 88; App. 25 (emphasis added). It is difficult to imagine a clearer statement to Congress of the reservation of the bed of Utah Lake.4 Major Powell, the director of the agency charged with implementing the 1888 Act, unquestionably understood the Act to authorize the reservation of lands underlying navigable waters. His contemporaneous construction of the Act is entitled to considerable deference. Udall v. Tollman, 380 U. S. 1, 16 (1965). The argument advanced by the majority in support of its position that the 1888 Act does not authorize the reservation of a lakebed, ante, at 203-204, is singularly unpersuasive as a basis for rejecting the USGS’s interpretation.
Moreover, Congress clearly ratified the reservation of Utah Lake, including its bed, in the 1890 Act. Any concerns about the scope of the 1888 Act are put to rest by this ratification. Although the 1890 Act repealed the withdrawal provision of the 1888 Act, see ante, at 199, Congress provided “that reservoir sites heretofore located or selected shall remain segregated and reserved from entry or settlement as provided by [the 1888]-act, until otherwise provided by law, and reservoir sites hereafter located or selected on public *213lands shall in like manner be reserved from the date of the location or selection thereof.” 26 Stat. 391. The “broad sweep of the 1888 Act,” ante, at 208, is therefore irrelevant since that Act was repealed before Utah was admitted to the Union. The pertinent statute, the 1890 Act, is more limited in scope, reserving to the United States only reservoir sites actually selected by the USGS.
Subsequent to the enactment of the 1890 Act, the Eleventh Annual Report of USGS to Secretary of the Interior 1889-1890, Part II — Irrigation, H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 1, 51st Cong., 2d Sess., pt. 5 (1890), for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890, was transmitted to Congress. In that report, the USGS elaborated on its work at Utah Lake and described the reservation of the bed of the lake with unassailable clarity:
“In Utah, in addition to the general reconnaissance of the storage facilities at the headwaters of the Sevier River and other streams, a careful survey was made of Utah Lake. This survey, run by level and transit around the lake, was for the purpose of determining the area which would be covered by damming or holding back the flood water. A description of the location and physical features of this body of water is to be found in this report under the head of Hydrography, and it will suffice to state here that after a careful study it was found that, on account of the excessive evaporation from such an enormous surface, the lake was too large to act in an economical manner as a storage reservoir. On the other hand, while it may not be advisable to hold back the water to a point above that of the average height, yet there is sufficient evidence to show that natural forces at times may raise the water level and increase the area to abnormal proportions by backing water over the great fringing marshes on the east and south. This land being, therefore, the natural flood ground of the lake, should be reserved up to the high-water line. Accordingly, the segregation, as shown on PI. XCV and given in *214the following lists, was made to include not only the bed but the lowlands up to mean high water.” Id., at 183-184; App. 28-29 (emphasis added).
There followed a designation of the land included in the reservation by enumeration of sections, half-sections, and quarter-sections, concluding: “Total area segregated, 125,440 acres.” Id., at 184-189; App. 29-38. This area indisputably included the bed of the lake and Congress must have so understood it.5
*215Several months after receiving the Eleventh Annual Report, Congress affirmed its intent to reserve the bed of Utah Lake for use as a reservoir. In the Act of Mar. 3, 1891, § 17, *21626 Stat. 1101, Congress provided, inter alia, that reservoir sites selected or to be selected under the 1888 and 1890 Acts “shall be restricted to and shall contain only so much land as is actually necessary for the construction and maintenance of reservoirs.” Although the 1891 legislation reflected congressional concern about the extent of reservoir site reservations, Congress declined to disturb the reserved status of the bed of Utah Lake. Similarly, in the Act of Feb. 26, 1897, 29 Stat. 599, 43 U. S. C. § 664, Congress provided that all reservoir sites reserved or to be reserved by the United States were to be open for the construction of reservoirs, canals, and ditches for irrigation under rules prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior but once again declined to disturb the 1888 Act reservations themselves.
The majority’s skewed interpretation of the pertinent statutes and administrative reports appears to result from the unsupportable assumption that Congress could have had no reason to reserve the bed of the lake. The USGS informed Congress as early as 1889, prior to Congress’ ratification of the reservation of Utah Lake in the 1890 Act, that when the lake was developed as a reservoir, the water level should be lowered beneath the natural shoreline in order to reduce its surface area and minimize the amount of water lost to evaporation. F. H. Newell of the USGS reported to the Senate Special Committee on the Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands at an August 20, 1889, hearing on his examination of Utah Lake:
“At first it was thought necessary to raise the lake in order to get more water, but on more careful study I think the lake can perform its full functions best by *217drawing down below the natural shore lines, rather than by raising it above them. In other words, if raised above, the lake will be too large for the evaporation area. The evaporation is even now too great in proportion to the amount of water than can be taken out.” S. Rep. No. 928, 51st Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 3, p. 61 (1890).6
Congress could anticipate that if title to the bed of the lake passed to the State upon its admission to the Union and the United States thereafter developed a reservoir as proposed, state land would be exposed which the State presumably could develop or convey as it saw fit. This settlement would be incompatible with the Federal Government’s use of the lake as a reservoir, however, because in times of flooding, water would be impounded in the reservoir, inundating the *218new settlements and potentially subjecting the Government to claims for compensation.
Moreover, Congress could anticipate that if the Federal Government did not retain title to the lakebed, it might be required to pay compensation for the use of nonfederal lands on which it constructed dams, dikes, or other works. The majority relies on Arizona v. California, 373 U. S. 546, 597-598 (1963), for the proposition that “even if the land under navigable water passes to the State, the Federal Government may still control, develop, and use the waters for its own purposes.” Ante, at 202. But Arizona v. California concerned the issue of federal water rights in the Colorado River for use on Indian reservations, national forests, and recreational and wildlife areas, not the right to construct water control structures on state lands. Water rights are not at issue here. The majority also relies on an earlier opinion in Arizona v. California, 283 U. S. 423 (1931), for the proposition that “[t]he transfer of title of the bed of Utah Lake to Utah . . . would not necessarily prevent the federal government from subsequently developing a reservoir or water reclamation project at the lake in any event.” Ante, at 208. We held in that case only that Congress had the power to construct a dam and reservoir, one purpose of which was expressly declared to be “improving navigation and regulating the flow of the river” pursuant to the Federal Government’s navigational servitude. 283 U. S., at 455-456. We specifically reserved the question of the Federal Government’s power to use state land for the construction of a project with other purposes: “Since the grant of authority to build the dam and reservoir is valid as an exercise of the Constitutional power to improve navigation, we have no occasion to decide whether the authority to construct the dam and reservoir might not also have been constitutionally conferred for the specified purpose of irrigating public lands of the United States.” Id., at 457. Because the Federal Government’s right to construct irrigation works without the payment of *219compensation is open to question, Congress may have intended to reserve the lakebed in order to avoid such claims. The majority’s refusal to acknowledge such intent because it is not absolutely certain that the reservation was necessary to effectuate Congress’ purpose is quite strange.
In sum, the reservation by the USGS of Utah Lake by its plain “terms embraces the land under the waters of the [lake],” and Congress “definitely declared” its intent to ratify that reservation in the 1890 Act. See Montana v. United States, 450 U. S., at 552. As I see it, Utah did not obtain title to the bed of the lake upon its admission to the Union, and I therefore dissent.

 Major Powell was quite familiar with the 1888 Act, having been for many years the leading proponent of a federal policy for reclamation of the arid West and essentially the only authority in the Federal Government on the science of irrigation. See W. Darrah, Powell of the Colorado 299-314 (1951). In 1878, he submitted to Congress his Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, with a More Detailed Account of the Lands of Utah, H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 73, 45th Cong., 2d Sess. (1878), a seminal work in the evolution of federal reclamation policy. See P. Gates, History of Public Land Law Development 645 (1968). In 1888, Major Powell reported to the Senate, at its request, 19 Cong. Rec. 2428-2429 *211(1888), on the appropriation that would be required to “investigate the practicability of constructing reservoirs for the storage of water in the arid region of the United States,” the designation of sites for such reservoirs and related works, and the segregation of lands susceptible to irrigation. In the report, which was submitted to the Senate on May 11, 1888, Powell proposed language for an appropriations bill which was incorporated, with two changes not pertinent here, into the 1888 Act. See Tenth Annual Report of USGS to Secretary of the Interior 1888-1889, Part II — Irrigation, H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 1, 51st Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 5, pp. 8-14 (1890).

 The majority makes much of the fact that Major Powell “did not discuss the bed of Utah Lake” in his 1889 letter to the Secretary of the Interior. Ante, at 206-207. It is true that the word “bed” is not found in the brief letter, but the land underlying the lake is clearly denoted by the words “the site of Utah Lake.” Major Powell selected as a reservoir site “the site of Utah Lake. . . together with all lands situate within two statute miles of the border of said lake at high water.” (Emphasis added.) Although it may have been the impending settlement of lands adjoining the lake which necessitated expeditious action, nothing in the letter suggested that the bed of the lake was forever unnecessary to the purpose of the reservation.

 The 1888 Act provided that “the Director of the Geological Survey under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior shall make a report to Congress on the first Monday in December of each year, showing in detail how the [money appropriated for the selection of sites for reservoirs] has been expended, the amount used for actual survey and engineer work in the field in locating sites for reservoires [sic] and an itemized account of the expenditures under this appropriation.” 25 Stat. 526-527.

 The majority passes over the very clear, very specific reference to the bed of Utah Lake in the Tenth Annual Report and alights on the phrase “public lands.” That phrase, according to the majority, means “lands subject to sale or other disposal under the general land laws.” Ante, at 206. This interpretive approach is inconsistent with our recent opinion in Amoco Production Co. v. Gambell, 480 U. S. 531, 549, n. 15 (1987), where we “rejected] the assertion that the phrase ‘public lands,’ in and of itself, has a precise meaning, without reference to a definitional section or its context in a statute.” The most natural interpretation of “public lands” in this context is simply lands to which the Federal Government holds title. In Choctaw Nation v. Oklahoma, 397 U. S. 620, 633 (1970), for example, we stated that “the United States can dispose of lands underlying navigable waters just as it can dispose of other public lands.” (Emphasis added.)

 The majority’s efforts to interpret the report otherwise, ante, at 204-207, are unpersuasive. Its conclusion that the bed of the lake up to mean high water had been “segregated” as of 1878 is based on the affidavit of a Bureau of Land Management official which states that “the original surveyed meander line on Utah Lake was completed by 1878, except for three small segments approximating a total of ten miles of shoreland . . . which was completed in 1910,” 4 Record, Doc. F, and a 1973 Bureau of Land Management Manual which explains that that agency’s current survey practice is to run a meander line at the mean high-water elevation. From these documents the majority appears to deduce the location of the 1878 meander line, its relationship to the area segregated by the USGS under the 1888 Act, and its legal significance with respect to the general land laws. None of these matters would have been apparent to the 51st Congress. Among other possible complexities ignored in this analysis is the fluctuating surface area of Utah Lake. The Manual on which the majority relies explains that “mean” high water is the annual mean:
“Practically all inland bodies of water pass through an annual cycle of changes, between the extremes of which will be found mean high water. . . . The most reliable indication of mean high-water elevation is the evidence made by the water’s action at its various stages, which are generally well marked in the soil. . . .
“Mean high-water elevation is found at the margin of the area occupied by the water for the greater portion of each average year.” U. S. Bureau of Land Management, Manual of Instructions for Survey of Public Lands of the United States § 3-116, pp. 94-95 (1973).
Mean high water, therefore, as defined in the Manual, does not account for variation from year to year. The Manual expressly states: “When by action of water the bed of the body of water changes, high-water mark changes, and the ownership of adjoining land progresses with it. Lane v. United States, 274 Fed. 290 (1921).” Id., §3-115, p. 94. The USGS reported in its Twelfth Annual Report, Part II-Irrigation, H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 1, 52d Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 5, p. 335 (1892), that the annual average *215level of Utah Lake varied greatly through the years, “the extreme range of water level since the settlement of the country being about 12 feet.” Because the lake lies in a shallow basin, this fluctuation in water level results in substantial changes in surface area, “the shore advancing or retreating over a strip of land from 1 or 2 miles or even more in width.” Id., at 336. From 1884 to 1889, a drought period, the lake receded each year, exposing dry land to settlement. Id., at 336-337. Nothing before Congress, however, clearly documented the relationship between the surface area of the lake in 1878, when the meander line was run, and 1889, when Utah Lake was segregated pursuant to the 1888 Act. The majority’s assertion that the Eleventh Annual Report merely advised Congress of “the further segregation of the lands adjacent to the lake,” ante, at 206, is based on the assumption that the 1878 meander line lay within the area of the 1889 reservation, but even if that assumption is correct, it would not have been apparent to Congress from the information before it. The legal significance of the 1878 meander line was also less.than obvious. When the lake receded between 1884 and 1889 the newly exposed lands were settled, being “of great value to the people dwelling around the shores of the lake,” since the arable and pasture lands of Utah County were fully utilized. Twelfth Annual Report, supra, at 336. This settlement was addressed at an August 19, 1889, hearing before the Senate Special Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands. The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Stewart, engaged in the following exchange with the Water Master of Salt Lake City:
“Mr. Wilcken. . . . [T]hey have a dam at [Utah] Lake to store water. There has been a little contention with the people in Utah County. The lake has been going down rapidly since 1884; people have crowded upon the land, and the moment we commenced to store water, thereby causing the lake to rise, there was a cry.
“The Chairman. Within the last year there has been a reservation of any land needed for that purpose, and the Government will survey such land and set it apart; otherwise will there not be a disposition to crowd upon it and settle it up?
“Mr. Wilcken. Of course, some of the land has been entered; but whether they have perfected their titles or not I do not know.” S. Rep. No. 928, 51st Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 3, p. 29 (1890).
The Court unfortunately rejects the plain and obvious meaning of the Eleventh Annual Report for a meaning fraught with uncertainty, and I would not assume that Congress did so. The United States has had no opportu*216nity to brief the legal significance of the 1878 meander line, and, even though the majority disavows any intention of deciding property rights, ante, at 205, n., it would be most unfortunate if the majority’s unsolicited conclusion with respect to the issue is inconsistent with that of the General Land Office and spawns litigation concerning otherwise established title to the lands bordering Utah Lake.

 See also the Eleventh Annual Report. The Twelfth Annual Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, reiterated the USGS’s position that the water level of Utah Lake should be lowered below the natural shoreline:
“[T]he lake is in effect too large to be most effective as a storage reservoir. . . . [T]he efficiency of the lake as a reservoir would be greatly increased if its area could be reduced even to less that [sic] half of its present extent; for by so doing in years of scarcity, as those of 1888 and 1889, a large proportion of the water which reaches the lake, instead of being lost by evaporation, would be retained and held for use in canals which cover the land of Salt Lake County. On the other hand, ... if the lake were only one-half its present area, the floods which come in years of exceptional precipitation would cause a far greater proportional increase of water surface than now takes place, for this water, being thrown into a smaller lake and being able to escape but slowly through the Jordan River, would of necessity encroach upon a far greater proportion of the surrounding lands.
“Thus, while to obtain the maximum amount of water in years of scarcity it would be better if the lake were small, yet to take care of the floods, which will happen at intervals of from five to ten years, it is necessary that the lake have a flood area as large as it now has, or even what it would have at the highest water. From consideration of these points the segregation of the land around and under the lake was made to a contour line which should be 5 feet above the low-water mark of 1879.” Id., at 339.