Paul M. Brophy v. United States

Brophy, an owner of land in the San Carlos Irrigation and Drainage District of Arizona (hereafter referred to as the San Carlos District), appeals from a decree of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona which ordered him to cease pumping water for irrigation purposes from a well on his land. Brophy contends that his right to pump water for such a purpose is controlled entirely by the Landowners’ Agreement with the Secretary of the Interior signed in 1927 which brought his land into the San Carlos District and that the agreement allows him to pump his own water for any purpose until ordered not to do so by the Secretary of the Interior.

The San Carlos Irrigation Project was created by Congress in 1916 primarily to make water available for the irrigation of 50,000 acres of Indian lands. To make the project feasible economically it was necessary to also bring in 50,000 acres of non-Indian land. The available surface water would irrigate only 80,000 acres, and so the original plans called for water for 20,000 acres to come from well and pumped water from underground sources. Congress passed an appropriation in 1928, 45 Stat. 200 , to provide for a pumping and…