Farmers get legal boost in water rights fight

While U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben sent some disputed water transfers back to the state engineer for further review, he said that all future "intrafarm" transfers will not be subject to either forfeiture or abandonment.

One lawyer involved in the on-going water dispute said the Sept. 3 order was significant.

Attorney Steve King said McKibben's order will allow the state engineer to categorize most Newlands Project transfer applications as intrafarm, making them safer from challenges of abandonment or forfeiture.

"This legal analysis should greatly stabilize the water rights within the whole project and the uses of water," King said. "It should be a very straightforward process."

King said it also should help speed up resolution of hundreds of applications pending before the state engineer from farmers who want to move water from one area of a farm to another.

archive