Free Republic

Under a historic water crisis in the desert southwest, the Navajo Nation asked for a court order requiring the federal government to determine the Nation’s water needs and to devise a plan to meet those needs. In a 5-4 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court held that the United States owes no “affirmative duty” to the Navajo Nation to secure water, reversing a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The majority ruled that the 1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo, known to the Nation as the Old Paper, or Naal Tsoos Sani, established no federal obligation...

Gates is a major investor in vaccines, we have a "pandemic". Gates is one of the largest farm land owners in America, we have a food shortage crisis. Gates invests in artificial breast milk labs, now there's a formula shortage.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Amid a severe drought, California regulators on Wednesday advanced what could be the state’s first major new water storage project in years despite warnings it would hasten the extinction of an endangered salmon species while disrupting the cultural traditions of some native tribes. The plan is to build a new lake in Northern California that, when full, could hold enough water to supply 3 million households for one year. Supporters need about $4 billion to build it. Wednesday’s vote by the California Water Commission means the lake — named Sites Reservoir — is eligible for about...

The Supreme Court of the United States unanimously rejected Mississippi’s claim against Tennessee for using too much of its groundwater. In this case, Mississippi claimed Tennessee should have prevented Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division from pumping groundwater from the Memphis Sand Aquifer over the state line. It argued that Tennessee’s “knowing, intentional, and forcible pumping of groundwater” violated Mississippi’s sovereignty and constitutes a wrongful taking of the state’s “most valuable natural resource.” All nine justices, however, disagreed.... ...Roberts seemed particularly annoyed by Mississippi’s argument, pointing out that, “Mississippi claims an absolute ‘ownership’ right to all groundwater beneath its surface—even...

STORY AT-A-GLANCE Bill Gates owns a minimum of 242,000 acres of U.S. farmland in Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, California and multiple other states Gates has a big vision for all that land, but unfortunately it doesn’t involve organic, biodynamic or regenerative farming methods, which are needed to heal ecosystems and produce truly sustainable, nourishing food for future generations Gates, along with Pat Brown, founder of imitation meat company Impossible Foods, supports GMOs, agricultural chemicals and technology as the future of farming Gates believes switching to synthetic beef is the solution to reducing methane emissions; Impossible Foods was co-funded by Google,...

ATLANTA (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Georgia in ending its eight-year battle with Florida over water that runs through Atlanta’s thirsty metro region and downstream past cotton and peanut fields to Apalachicola Bay and its depleted oyster fisheries. ...In a unanimous 9-0 decision, the court ruled that Florida did not prove that its proposed water diversion caps on Georgia were warranted, given the balance between the needs of Georgia’s population and agricultural needs versus the needs of Florida. Nor did the court accept that water depletion was the cause of the Florida’s declining oyster beds....

Two major lakes in the Colorado River Basin that operate as one huge reservoir to supply millions of people with water are drying up

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A U.S. court has sided with a New Mexico ranching family in a decades-long battle over access to water on national forest land, providing more certainty that state law allows for the protection of water rights dating back more than a century. The case of the Goss family has been closely watched by thousands of ranchers who hold grazing permits across the West. Attorneys and others say the outcome could have ripple effects on ranchers and rural communities that have often complained about federal land managers trampling property rights. The Goss family claimed the federal government violated...

PORTLAND — An Oregon ranching couple claims their lawsuit over grazing and water rights against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was wrongly dismissed. Jesse and Pamela White of Malheur County have asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a federal judge’s decision to throw out the case for jurisdictional reasons. During oral arguments in Portland on June 6, attorneys for the Whites and BLM sparred over whether the federal agency had a legal duty to alter or remove water reservoirs before reducing the ranch’s grazing levels. The dispute originated in the 1960s, when BLM constructed 20...

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – A federal judge said Friday he will likely order the federal government to reallocate water, some earmarked for commercial interests, to stave off a salmon die-off on the California-Oregon border. Two Native American tribes sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last year, claiming its bungled management of Klamath River waterways allowed a deadly parasite to infect 91 percent of endangered juvenile Coho and Chinook salmon.

An Oregon couple has been told they must destroy a 2-acre pond on their land — the property’s most attractive feature — because the government said so. Although Jon and Sabrina Carey purchased the 10-acre property near Butte Falls two and a half years ago, the pond has been in place for 40 years — but that fact doesn’t matter to the Jackson County Watermaster’s Office. “I basically bought a lemon,” said Jon, who became teary-eyed at the edge of the partially ice-covered body of water being targeted by government, in an interview with the Mail Tribune. “That’s how they...

County officials in western Colorado have regularly lambasted Planning 2.0 and this week, Garfield County joined in with five other counties in the western United States considering suing to halt the rule, which they have criticized as a central-planning measure. The BLM this month announced that the rule was final and on Monday, Garfield County agreed to spend as much as $40,000 with the Texas-based property-rights organization, the American Stewards of Liberty, to halt it. While Garfield County is taking an active role, Mesa County officials are looking to Congress and a Republican administration under President-elect Donald Trump to deal...

If the federal water rights sought by the Bureau of Land Management for the San Pedro subwatershed are granted by an Arizona court, existing residential wells near the river could be shut down and real estate development would be stopped, Cochise County Supervisor Pat Call said in a Herald/Review interview.

$16 million in fines dropped, threats canceled. A Wyoming rancher threatened by the Environmental Agency with $16 million fines for getting a state permit and building a stock pond on his ranch has reached a settlement that will have the fines go away and he’ll keep his stock pond. WND reported in 2015 on a lawsuit filed on behalf of Fort Bridger, Wyoming, rancher Andy Johnson by officialsl with the Pacific Legal Foundation seeking to vindicate his property rights. The lawsuit explained federal law clearly exempts stock ponds from the rules of the EPA, which had filed a compliance order...

California, Oregon and the federal government are working on a way around congressional barriers to the removal of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. The states, the U.S. Interior Department and the owner of the dams, PacifiCorp, announced Tuesday that they have agreed in principle to pursue removal through the federal dam relicensing process. The move comes after a complex deal to decommission four hydroelectric dams and restore portions of the historic salmon river fell apart when Congress failed to act on a crucial piece of the pact by a Dec. 31 deadline. Republican members of Congress and local elected...

A growing number of state organizations seek to remedy what they consider negligent policies and shoddy oversight of public land on the part of federal agencies. Under the umbrella name Transfer of Public Lands, the movement offers a solution to the problem that is simple in concept: transfer ownership and management of public lands administered by federal agencies to equivalent state agencies. These agencies, being accountable to governors, state legislators and citizens, will manage the public lands in a more conscientious, cost-effective way. ... Unlike states east of the Continental Divide, public lands in Western states such as Washington and...

The agreement never sold well either in solidly Republican Klamath County or on the California side of the border, where the idea of removing dams and tilting the scale toward environmental and tribal purposes was regarded suspiciously. "They try to say the community is for it, and it's not true at all," said Klamath County Chairman Tom Mallams, noting that almost all successful candidates in the area run against the agreement. ... Among western Republicans, the idea of removing the dams has been viewed with great suspicion, even though the aged structures are relatively small hydroelectric producers, aren't used for...

While everyone was voting in Colorado elections Tuesday, scant attention was paid to how our U.S. Senators voted on a measure that is extremely important to our entire way of life. We'll give you a hint - it's water. A bill by our Wyoming neighbor, Republican U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, would have required the EPA to rewrite the egregious Waters of the United States rule to give states and the agriculture industry more protection. WOTUS, as it's known, is the latest and worstest regulation issued by the Obama administration to regulate ponds and ditches in neighborhoods and farms as navigable...

Americans now comprehend fully the disdain the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has for truth-telling, the rights of others, and the environment. Forget the last six spiteful years; the Colorado mine disaster suffices. The EPA’s wanton malfeasance — experts warned of a catastrophic blowout — unleashed three million gallons of orange arsenic-, cadmium-, and lead-laden wastewater into an Animas River tributary trashing public, private, and tribal lands and waters in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and the Navajo Nation. Even so, the EPA has nothing on the U.S. Forest Service. In documents filed days ago in a federal district court in Arkansas,...

Attorneys general from thirteen states filed a lawsuit Monday challenging EPA's new rule defining the waters of the U.S. (WOTUS), asserting that the rule expands the scope of clean water regulations to lands that are dry much of the year and increases the federal government's authority over land use. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota. South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, who joined in the lawsuit, noted that 35 states have filed comments in opposition to the rule and several other attorneys general are considering filing challenges. The EPA is overstepping...