Court Opinion

ID: 9613332
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:16:12.985588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:28.133925
License: Public Domain

DONALDSON, Justice.
On December 17, 1976, appellant Hidden Springs Trout Ranch, Inc. (Hidden Springs) filed an application with the respondent Department of Water Resources for a water appropriation permit authorizing diversion of 100 cubic feet per second of water from Billingsley-Creek for fish propagation purposes. Respondent R. W. Stevens, a downstream appropriator with senior priority, filed a protest to the approval of this application with the Department. His contention in protest was that the Hidden Springs diversion would bring about a reduction in water quality under existing water rights.
The Department advised Stevens that under existing statutory regulation water quality was an inappropriate consideration in deciding upon an application. Stevens unsuccessfully sought a writ of prohibition to halt Department hearings on the application. Thereafter, on January 9, 1978, a conference and hearing were held on the Hidden Springs application.
While the application was thus pending before the Department, the Idaho Legislature amended I.C. § 42-203 with an emergency clause giving the section an effective *624date of March 29, 1978. The amended I.C. § 42-203 provided that a new criterion, local public interest, would be a valid consideration in application proceedings.
On July 21, 1978, the Department issued a memorandum decision and order approving the Hidden Springs application subject to the condition that any person appearing in the matter would have thirty days to request that the record be reopened and a hearing be held for the purpose of receiving evidence relating to the issue of local public interest as set forth in the amended I.C. § 42-203. Thereafter, respondent Idaho Department of Fish and Game and respondent Stevens effectively requested that the record be reopened to receive local public interest evidence.
Subsequently, Hidden Springs filed a petition in the district court seeking modification of the Department’s memorandum decision and order by the striking of the thirty-day condition. The district court, following hearings on the matter, concluded that the amended I.C. § 42-203 did apply to pending applications before the Department, holding the “local public interest standard” to be therefore applicable and not retroactive in application. The court denied the petition. Hidden Springs appeals.
Prior to its amendment on March 29, 1978, I.C. § 42-203 contained four criteria which the Director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources was to consider in taking action upon an application for a permit to appropriate the public waters of the state of Idaho. The four criteria were:
(1) Whether the proposed appropriation will reduce the quantity of water under existing water rights;
(2) Whether the water supply itself is insufficient for the purpose for which it is sought to be appropriated;
(3) Whether it appears to the satisfaction of the department that such application is not made in good faith, is made for delay, or speculative purposes; and
(4) Whether the applicant has sufficient financial resources with which to complete the work involved therein.
When the appellant filed its application for the permit in question the Department of Water Resources was limited to a consideration of these four criteria. Likewise,, at the time of the conference and hearing on the application the parties and the Department were restricted to consideration of these same four criteria. It was not until March 29, 1978, that I.C. § 42-203 was amended to provide that for all applications, consideration should be given by the director to all of the criteria set forth in the statute, whether or not the application is protested, including an additional fifth criterion:
(5)Whether the proposed appropriation will conflict with the local public interest, where the local public interest is defined as the affairs of the people in the area directly affected by the proposed use.
The central question on this appeal is whether there has been an impermissible retroactive application of a statute, specifically the amended I.C. § 42-203. We agree with the holding of the district court that there has been none and therefore affirm its order denying appellant’s petition.
It is the general rule in Idaho that a statute should not be applied retroactively in the absence of a clear legislative intent to that effect. I.C. § 73-101; State v. Lindquist, 99 Idaho 766, 589 P.2d 101 (1979); Blankenship v. Myers, 97 Idaho 356, 544 P.2d 314 (1975); Edwards v. Walker, 95 Idaho 289, 507 P.2d 486 (1973). However, it is also the rule in Idaho that retroactive legislation is only that which affects vested or already existing rights. Frisbie v. Sunshine Mining Co., 93 Idaho 169, 457 P.2d 408 (1969); Engen v. James, 92 Idaho 690, 448 P.2d 977 (1969); see State v. Lindquist, supra (Donaldson, J., dissenting opinion). In the instant case, the focus is thus upon the status of appellant, whether it as an applicant had a vested or already existing right which could not be impinged upon by application of amended I.C. § 42-203.
Initially, it is important to note that we do not discuss the status of one who has *625acquired an adjudicated right, a licensed right or an unadjudicated “constitutional” right to water as defined in Idaho statutes or the Idaho Constitution. Nor are we concerned with the status of one who has already procured a water appropriation permit. Cf. Big Wood Canal Co. v. Chapman, 45 Idaho 380, 263 P. 45 (1927) (a permittee secures an inchoate right, a merely contingent right which may ripen into a complete appropriation but is not real property and is merely a consent given by the state to construct and acquire real property). Rather, we address today only the status of one who has but initiated the statutory process by the filing of an application for a water appropriation permit and whose application is properly pending when legislation is passed which impacts upon the permit application.
A permit applicant applying to appropriate water has no prior individually vested right to the water at the time of application; the applicant does not already own the water. The applicant’s status is therefore not analogous for example to that of a landowner who has a vested right to put the land he owns to whatever use is permitted by the zoning ordinances in effect at the time the landowner makes application for a building permit. See Cooper v. Board of County Commissioners, 101 Idaho 407, 614 P.2d 947 (1980) (on petition for rehearing); Ready-To-Pour, Inc. v. McCoy, 95 Idaho 510, 511 P.2d 792 (1973); Ben Lomond, Inc. v. City of Idaho Falls, 92 Idaho 595, 448 P.2d 209 (1968).
Moreover, the public waters of the state are subject to the regulation and control of the state as generally mandated in Article 15 of the Idaho Constitution and statutorily delineated throughout Title 42 of the Idaho Code. We do not find that the mere initiation of the statutory process for water appropriation immediately grants the applicant vested rights in the water. The applicant gains but an inchoate right upon filing of the application which may ripen into a vested interest following proper statutory adherence.
Accordingly, in the instant case, at the time the legislation in question was enacted, the status of the appellant had progressed no further than that of an applicant with a pending application. Appellant therefore possessed no vested right which could be interfered with by application of the legislation. The filing of the application for the permit did of course establish the priority date of the appropriation under the doctrine of relation back, but any such priority date right is nonetheless contingent upon future statutory adherence and issuance of a license, I.C. § 42-219, and is not therefore a right rising to any vested level which would preclude application of the amended I.C. § 42-203.
No other issue as raised by appellant presenting an incident of reversible error, we therefore affirm the order of the district court denying appellant’s petition to modify the order of the Department of Water Resources. Costs to respondents. No attorney fees allowed.
BISTLINE and SHEPARD, JJ., concur.