The U.S. District Court in Boise has ruled in favor of the state of Idaho and thwarted the federal government’s attempt to bypass state law and claim thousands of stockwater rights on federal land.

The U.S. government sued the state in 2022, arguing state statutes unconstitutionally interfere with its water rights.

The central issue is that under state law, water rights are forfeited after five years of nonuse.

In 2022, the state Department of Water Resources issued four orders requiring the federal government to show cause why 68 federally owned stockwater rights should not be forfeited, according to court records.

The federal government was granted stockwater rights on federal ground through the nearly 30-year Snake River Basin Adjudication process.

Beneficial use

“The law in Idaho is that … you have to put your water for beneficial use and if you don’t then you risk losing that water right through forfeiture,” said Paul Arrington, executive director and general counsel for Idaho Water Users Association.

The courts have ruled that as a general matter, water rights on federal property where ranchers are running cattle and doing all the work are in the name of the ranchers, not the federal government, he said.

“So you have this situation where there are overlapping rights where you have a rancher with the water right because they’re the ones actually using the cattle and then you have some scenarios where there are federal grazing rights on the same land but they don’t have cattle,” he said.

Adjudication

Arguably, those rights that the federal government received in the Snake River Basin Adjudication court based on grazing would be subject to forfeiture because the federal government is not using the water, he said.

The district court held that Idaho’s forfeiture laws are valid and the federal government defers to state law on these types of issues, he said.

At its core, the court upheld the state law of beneficial use and the validity of those forfeiture processes, he said.

Forfeiture

However, the court also held that when the Idaho Legislature was trying to address this issue, it enacted several laws that were a little too “pointed” at the federal government, he said.

Because they weren’t of general application, they were unconstitutional.

But ultimately the court upheld that the federal government has to comply with the state forfeiture laws, he said.

Idaho Farm Bureau intervened in the case and has cautioned ranchers about signing agreements with the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service stating they were an agent of the federal government in running their cattle on BLM ground, thereby signaling the federal government owned the water right.

Farm Bureau is grateful the court ruled in favor of the state and ranchers, said Russ Hendricks. Idaho Farm Bureau vice president of government affairs.

“Congress has repeatedly stated the federal government is subject to state water law. Despite the government claiming otherwise, the court wisely ruled they are not entitled to any special privileges and should be treated just like everyone else under Idaho water law,” he said.