United States of America, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians v. Truckee-Carson Irrigation District City of Fallon City of Fernley, Nevada State Engineers, United States of America, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians v. City of Fernley, Nevada State Engineers

429 F.3d 902, 35 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20236, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 25040
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 21, 2005
Docket04-16032
StatusPublished

This text of 429 F.3d 902 (United States of America, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians v. Truckee-Carson Irrigation District City of Fallon City of Fernley, Nevada State Engineers, United States of America, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians v. City of Fernley, Nevada State Engineers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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United States of America, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians v. Truckee-Carson Irrigation District City of Fallon City of Fernley, Nevada State Engineers, United States of America, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians v. City of Fernley, Nevada State Engineers, 429 F.3d 902, 35 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20236, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 25040 (9th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

429 F.3d 902

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff,
and
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians, Petitioner-Appellant,
v.
TRUCKEE-CARSON IRRIGATION DISTRICT; City of Fallon; City of Fernley, Defendants-Appellees,
Nevada State Engineers, Respondent-Appellee.
United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellant,
and
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians, Petitioner,
v.
City of Fernley, Defendant-Appellee,
Nevada State Engineers, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 04-16032.

No. 04-16033.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted July 7, 2005.

Filed November 21, 2005.

Katherine J. Barton, Fred R. Disheroon, James B. Cooney, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC; Stephen M. MacFarlane, U.S. Department of Justice, Sacramento, CA, for plaintiff-appellant United States of America.

Robert S. Pelcyger, Fredericks Pelcyger Hester & White, Louisville, CO, for petitioner-appellant Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians.

Michael J. Van Zandt, McQuaid Bedford & Van Zandt, San Francisco, CA, for defendant-appellee Truckee-Carson Irrigation District.

Steve King, Mackedon & McCormick, Fallon, NV, for defendant-appellee City of Fallon.

Paul G. Taggart, King & Taggart, Carson City, NV, for defendant-appellee City of Fernley.

Michael L. Wolz, Office of the Nevada Attorney General, Carson City, NV, for respondent-appellee Nevada State Engineers.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada; Lloyd D. George, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-73-00003-LDG, EQUITY A-3.

Before SCHROEDER, Chief Judge, HAWKINS and W. FLETCHER, Circuit Judges.

WILLIAM A. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge.

This appeal arises from efforts by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians to apply some of its Truckee River water rights, as established under a 1944 federal court decree, to instream use rather than irrigation. The district court held that the Tribe was entitled to change the use of the water rights, but was not entitled to apply the transportation loss portion of the rights. We affirm.

I. Background

The Truckee River originates in California, flows into Nevada, and terminates in Pyramid Lake. The lake is the principal natural feature of the Pyramid Lake Reservation. Acting under authority granted to it by the Reclamation Act of 1902, 32 Stat. § 388, the federal government initiated the Newlands Reclamation Project to divert water for irrigation from the Truckee and Carson Rivers. Because private landowners and the Indians of the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation held pre-existing water rights, the United States brought suit in federal district court in 1913 to quiet title to all water rights in the project area. More than thirty years later, the federal district court in Nevada entered a final decree adjudicating water rights in the Truckee Division of the project. United States v. Orr Water Ditch Co., Equity No. A-3 (D.Nev.1944). Known as the Orr Ditch Decree, it allows owners of water rights to change the "place, means, manner or purpose of use of the waters to which [the owner is] so entitled," as long as they do so "in the manner provided by law."

The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians and the United States, as trustee for the Tribe, sought in 2001 to make temporary changes to two water rights provided by the decree, Claim Nos. 1 and 2. They sought to change the use of water formerly used for irrigation of Indian lands so that it would flow unimpeded into Pyramid Lake, where it would help preserve the Tribe's fishery. Following the procedures specified in the Orr Ditch Decree, the Tribe and the United States applied to the Nevada State Engineer for an initial adjudication. On December 6, 2002, the Engineer issued a ruling granting the applications in part. The Engineer allowed the Tribe to transfer the majority of the acre-feet it had requested to fishery use (approximately 85 percent of its request under Claim No. 1, and approximately 73 percent of its request under Claim No. 2), but did not allow the Tribe to transfer the remaining portion of the claims. These remaining portions were transportation losses that, in the view of the Engineer, could not be transferred to a use that did not entail such losses.

In January 2003, the City of Fallon and the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District appealed the State Engineer's ruling to federal district court. In their appeal, the City of Fallon and the Irrigation District invoked Nev.Rev.Stat. § 533.450(5), which allows a party to obtain an automatic stay of the State Engineer's ruling on a change application upon timely request and the posting of a bond. The district court issued the requested stay. The United States and the Tribe appealed, objecting that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, rather than the Nevada water law statute, should apply. We affirmed, holding that the stay procedure was an inseparable part of the Nevada water code and was thus applicable to proceedings under the decree. United States v. Orr Water Ditch Co., 391 F.3d 1077 (9th Cir.2004), amended by 400 F.3d 1117 (9th Cir.2005).

On March 9, 2004, the district court decided the merits of the underlying appeal from the State Engineer's ruling. See United States v. Orr Water Ditch Co., 309 F.Supp.2d 1245 (D.Nev.2004). The district court largely affirmed the Engineer, upholding his decision that the Tribe is entitled to transfer its water rights under Claim Nos. 1 and 2 from irrigation to in-stream use in furtherance of its fishery in Pyramid Lake. Parties on both sides appealed. This court dismissed the appeal of the Irrigation District pursuant to a stipulation of the parties. All that remains is the appeal by the Tribe and the United States.

II. Mootness

The period encompassed by the temporary transfer in this case ended in November 2004, but the question at issue in this appeal will almost certainly arise again. As we noted in Orr Water Ditch, 391 F.3d at 1080, the United States and the Tribe are "repeat players" who have stated that they intend to file virtually identical temporary transfer applications in the future. Temporary transfer applications may involve changes in water use that are of brief duration such that the period will inevitably expire before any appeal can be heard. Thus, for reasons similar to those stated in our previous opinion, this case falls into the exception to mootness for cases "`capable of repetition, yet evading review.'" See id. at 1080-81 (quoting S. Pac. Terminal Co. v. Interstate Commerce Comm'n, 219 U.S. 498, 515, 31 S.Ct. 279, 55 L.Ed. 310 (1911)).

III. Standard of Review

In proceedings under the Orr Ditch

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429 F.3d 902, 35 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20236, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 25040, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-of-america-and-pyramid-lake-paiute-tribe-of-indians-v-ca9-2005.