Ninth Circuit sides with Nevada ranch over national park water rights

A split Ninth Circuit panel ruled that the McCarran Amendment, a 1952 law waiving federal sovereign immunity in water rights disputes, applies to Baker Ranches' dispute with Great Basin National Park over creek water. The ranch holds water rights from a 1934 state decree and argued the park was reducing flow needed for its operations, including by planting vegetation the ranch says violates the decree's requirement to keep streams clear.

Writing for the majority, Judge John Owens rejected the government's argument that applying the amendment would unfairly reopen settled claims, noting 67 Nevada decrees predate the amendment and the government's logic would undermine all of them. A dissenting judge argued the government wasn't a party to the original decree and so never waived immunity under the statute's plain language.

The ranch had also asked the court to stop what it called trespass-related restrictions on construction and fire suppression activity, issues the dissent flagged as evidence the ranch's claims went beyond ordinary water rights administration.

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