Kittitas Reclamation District United States of America v. Sunnyside Valley Irrigation District

In this action, as part of its continuing jurisdiction over a consent decree entered in 1945, the district court entered a Memorandum and Order interpreting and administering the consent decree. Sunnyside Valley Irrigation District (Sunnyside) appeals that Memorandum and Order.

I. FACTS

This case had its genesis in a declaratory action in 1939. The action had been instituted to determine the obligation of the United States Bureau of Reclamation to deliver water to the Sunnyside Valley Irrigation District, which was situated in the Yakima Reclamation Project. A cross-complaint was also filed in the case requesting the court to determine the respective water rights of users of the waters of the Yakima River and its tributaries.

During the pendency of this action, the decision in Fox v. Ickes, 137 F.2d 30 (D.C.Cir.), ce rt. denied, 320 U.S. 792 , 64 S.Ct. 204 , 88 L.Ed. 477 (1943), was rendered. That decision, which dealt with the same Yakima Reclamation Project, essentially decided the issue of the obligation of the Bureau of Reclamation to deliver water within the Project. It was determined that the water rights of the irrigation districts and other water users were property…