Joint Board of Control of the Flathead, Mission & Jocko Irrigation Districts v. United States

The Joint Board of Control of the Flathead, Mission and Jocko Irrigation Districts (the Joint Board) brought suit to enjoin the Bureau of Indian Affairs (the BIA) from continuing to implement its 1986 operating strategy for the Flathead Irrigation Project in Montana. The District Court granted the preliminary injunction and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the *1129 Flathead Keservation (the Tribes) appealed. We review the District Court’s grant of injunctive relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (a)(1). We reverse.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This case involves a continuing dispute surrounding the operating strategy by which the BIA provides water supplies controlled by the Flathead Irrigation Project to serve the competing demands of tribal fisheries and irrigated agriculture. The first litigation was commenced by the Tribe. In 1985, the Tribes determined that drought conditions—a combined effect of diminished precipitation and high summer temperatures—would diminish flows and decrease water levels in the Reservation’s rivers and reservoirs. They brought an action to enjoin the BIA from distributing waters to the irrigation districts in such a manner as to deplete…