Goshen Irrigation District v. Pathfinder Irrigation District

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

ALAN B. JOHNSON, Chief Judge.

I

Water is the life-blood of Wyoming and Nebraska, arid Western states. Consequently, they, like the rest of the West, were transformed by the Bureau of Reclamation’s epic water storage projects. The question raised in this ease is whether the irrigation districts of the Bureau’s North Platte River Project have priority to the use of water stored in Pathfinder Reservoir in a drought year.

The drought year in question is 1989. The water rights in question arise under contracts for water stored in reservoirs built by the federal…