§ 41-12-205 — Allocation of waters

Wyoming § 41-12-205

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming
• Title 41: Water
• Ch. 12: INTERSTATE COMPACTS
• Art. 2: BELLE FOURCHE RIVER COMPACT

Text

(a) Wyoming and South Dakota agree that the unappropriated
waters of the Belle Fourche River as of the date of this compact
shall be allocated to each state as follows: Ninety percent
(90%) to South Dakota Ten percent (10%) to Wyoming; provided,
that allocations to Wyoming shall be exclusive of the use of
these waters for domestic and stock use, and Wyoming shall be
allowed unrestricted use for these purposes, except that no
reservoir for such use shall exceed twenty (20) acre-feet in
capacity. For storage of its allocated water, Wyoming shall have
the privilege of purchasing at cost not to exceed ten percent
(10%) of the total storage capacity for any reservoir or
reservoirs constructed in Wyoming for irrigation of lands in
South Dakota, or may construct reservoirs itself for the purpose
of utilizing such water. Either state may temporarily divert, or
store for beneficial use, any unused part of the above
percentages allotted to the other, but no continuing right shall
be established thereby.
(b) Rights to the use of the waters of the Belle Fourche
River, whether based on direct diversion or storage, are hereby
recognized as of the date of this compact to the extent these
rights are valid under the law of the state in which the use is
made, and shall remain unimpaired hereby. These rights, together
with the additional allocations made under (a) of this section,
are agreed to be an equitable apportionment between the states
of the waters of the basin.
(c) The waters allocated under subsection (a) of this
section and the rights recognized under subsection (b) of this
section are hereinafter referred to collectively as the
apportioned water. For the purposes of the administration of
this compact and determining the apportioned water at any given
date within a given calendar year, there shall be taken the sum
of:
(i) The quantity of water in acre-feet that passed
the Wyoming-South Dakota state line during the period from
January 1 of that year to that given date;
(ii) The quantity of water in acre-feet in storage on
that date in all reservoirs built in Wyoming on the Belle
Fourche River subsequent to the date of this compact.