‘Existential threat’ to Western U.S. states: New Obama water policy position overturns decades of practice
Coming to a Western State Near You: “We’re From the Federal Government and We’re Here to Help”
by Bob Unruh
The Obama administration has launched a new battle over water rights that threatens not only the the economies of arid Western states, which largely voted against him in the 2008 election, but their very existence.
WND reported last month that the federal government was creating obstacles for Tombstone, Ariz., to restore its water supplies following last year’s forest fire and monsoon-triggered floods in the nearby mountains. The federal government said crews could not use machinery to rebuild pipelines and spring-water collection systems.
Now, a letter contradicting longstanding federal practice asserts a claim to water in arid Western states, such as Utah, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, that supersedes all other authorities, including decisions by state water courts.
“Federal water rights are entitled to a form of protection that is broader than what may be provided to similarly situated state law rights holders,” states a letter from Julie Decker, the deputy state director in the U.S. Department of the Interior to the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
The letter was objecting to state plans to do a routine “Designation of Adequate Water Supply,” which reviews water resources, rights and uses when changes are proposed.
Decker’s letter said water is not “legally” available for some users who may want to develop property in the area, because “the expressed federal reserved water right created by Congress is senior to all junior water users who initiate uses after the date of the establishment of the reservation.”
Nick Dranias, who holds the Clarence J. and Katherine P. Duncan Chair for Constitutional Government and is director of the Joseph and Dorothy Donnelly Moller Center for Constitutional Government at the Goldwater Institute, called it an “existential threat to the Western states.”
The institute is fighting on behalf of Tombstone for its right to repair its water supply system and use the water.
A statement from the institute said the city of Tombstone “is no longer the only one fighting the federal government for water rights.”
“The latest move by the federal Bureau of Land Management appears to herald a bigger and much more comprehensive effort to seize water and access rights on federal lands throughout the Western states,” the statement said.
The newest dispute is the federal government’s letter concerning water rights in Arizona’s San Pedro Riparian watershed. The letter came in response to a request by Sierra Vista’s Pueblo del Sol Water Co., which claims water rights in the area but is being told it cannot use the water without the federal government’s permission.
“This new federal policy not only defies decades of deference to and accommodation of state sovereignty over water law, but it throws a noose around Arizona’s neck, for which water is life,” the institute said.
“The growing federal stranglehold over water rights in Arizona is a direct assault on state autonomy. There is perhaps no better way for the federal government to quell restive Western states, like Arizona, that dare to resist federal immigration, health care, and unionization policies.”
Dranias explained the situation to people in regions of the country where water is more plentiful.
“Water is the lifeblood of the arid Western states. Development would not exist without pretty intensive development of scarce water. That is only possible with the incentives created by ownership,” he said.
Without assurances that water is available, there is no possibility that economic development can occur, he said. In fact, some states have provisions, such as in Colorado, saying a homeowner cannot occupying a building unless a water right is documented for the structure.
He said it was only a few decades back that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a New Mexico case that the federal government deferred to states on water rights.
Now, however, the policy is being repudiated, threatening virtually every water user west of the Mississippi River.
Go here to read the rest.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/existential-threat-to-western-u-s-states/
COMMENT FROM STEWART RHODES: We can look to what was done to the farmers in California this past few years (denied water till their crops died) and also what has been done to the timber industry throughout the West (driven out of business by not allowing them to cut), as an indication of where this is going. The federal government has shown a well demonstrated intent to kill the industries and agriculture of the West, thus impoverishing the people – apparently in the hopes of driving them out and depopulating the rural West. All of this is in direct violation of the equal footing doctrine (where all states are supposed to have entered the Union with the same rights – on the same footing – as the original thirteen states). It may soon be necessary for the Western states to take direct control of all land and all resources within their boundaries, and tell the feds to stuff it. Otherwise, the very concept of a “state” will be a joke, with the states controlling absolutely nothing, and having no sovereignty to speak of, with the national government reigning supreme over the lives, liberty, and property of the citizens of the states. This is not how our dual-sovereignty Republic was designed to work. This is an usurpation. Looks like some nullification is in order. – Stewart Rhodes
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May 16th, 2012 at 11:45 am
Nullification indeed.
May 16th, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Those SOBs are having a great laugh at our expense, I’m afraid. They push, they shove, they provoke, they offend, all the while wondering how much s#!+ it will take to get a rise from the Sheople.
LORD have mercy should they finally have their last laugh
May 17th, 2012 at 6:28 pm
This is all about punishing the western states and in particular Arizona, the fed doesn’t want Arizona enforcing immagration laws. They are doing their best to cause havoc, confusion and division between the states as a way to come in and take control where they have no legal or constitutional rights. Arizona hurt Barrack’s feelings (waaa waaa waaa), I’m so sick of Obama and company grabbing control of every facet of our lives, I say it’s time to get an arrest warrant made out for him and his crony cabinet charging them all with TREASON!
June 25th, 2012 at 9:16 am
As far as I’m concerned, the federal government has already said the rights are deferred to the individual states, therefore, what the fed is doing is illegal. I say go against the fed, period. Time to push back Arizona, and America! And I agree with Ty Stuart…let’s get those arrest warrants signed and send out the sheriffs for these criminals, and the militia’s to backup the sheriffs. They can’t stop us. Once we all realize that we outnumber them by the millions, it’s over for them.
July 3rd, 2012 at 9:44 pm
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