Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians v. Washoe County

*744OPINION

By the Court,

Young, J.:

FACTS

In the mid-1980s, Washoe County entered into joint ventures with Fish Springs Ranch LTD. (“FSR”) and Northwest Nevada Water Resources Limited Partnership (“NNWR”) for the purpose of importing groundwater from the Honey Lake Basin1 to the Reno and Sparks areas. FSR and NNWR filed “intra-basin” *745transfer applications with the Nevada State Engineer’s Office to modify their existing Honey Lake Basin groundwater rights. Washoe County filed thirty-one “inter-basin” applications to transfer water from Honey Lake to the Truckee Meadows metropolitan area. Several of…