594
Opinion of the Court
for release to Nebraska users during the irrigation season. Due to icing conditions on the Interstate Canal during the winter, the Bureau also temporarily has stored water destined for the Inland Lakes in the Guernsey and Glendo Reservoirs.
It appears that the Inland Lakes always have been operated with the December 6, 1904, priority date that Wyoming recognizes for other original components of the North Platte Project, even though the Bureau never obtained a separate Wyoming storage permit for the Inland Lakes. In 1986, however, Wyoming sued the Bureau in Wyoming state court, seeking to enjoin the Bureau from storing water in the Inland Lakes without a state permit and out of priority with other Wyoming users. (The action was subsequently removed to Federal District Court and dismissed without prejudice.) As the Master indicated, there is some reason to think that Wyoming wished to establish a post-1986 priority date for the Inland Lakes in order to increase the amount of North Platte water available for the new project on Deer Creek. At any rate, Nebraska (which was not a party to the Wyoming lawsuit) challenged Wyoming's actions in its petition to this Court.
Nebraska and the United States moved for summary judgment, seeking determinations that the decree entitles the Bureau to continue its longstanding diversion and storage practices and that the Inland Lakes have a priority date of December 6, 1904. Wyoming moved for partial summary judgment that the Inland Lakes do not have storage rights under either state law or the decree. The Special Master recommended that we grant the motions of Nebraska and the United States and deny Wyoming's motion. That the Bureau lacks a separate Wyoming permit for the Inland Lakes, he reasoned, is immaterial because the question of the Inland Lakes' priority was determined in the original proceedings. The decree did not explicitly establish the Inland Lakes' priority. But it is undisputed that the Court
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