BEIJING,
Feb. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The state of Montana filed suit Thursday with U.S. Supreme
Court against Wyoming, alleging that Wyoming has been short-changing Montana on
water and breaking a 56-year-old water agreement between the states.
Montana claimed that Wyoming's excessive use of water
from two shared rivers systems is leaving downstream Montana ranches and farms
dry. The lawsuit is a sharp escalation in the water fight between the states.
"Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting,"
said Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath Thursday in a press conference
announcing the suit. "That's where we are with Wyoming on a number of levels."
"Wyoming signed a compact that said Montana would get
its fair share of water and Wyoming has not been holding up its end of the
deal," Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said in a statement.
Patrick Tyrell, Wyoming's state engineer and that
state's representative on the three-member Yellowstone River Compact Commission,
said Schweitzer is wrong. Wyoming has drastically cut back which water users can
take water out of the rivers in the last couple of dry years.
In some cases, Tyrell added, Wyoming was forbidding
all water users who didn't have rights dating back to the 1880s from using
water.
The suit is not the only one brewing between the
states regarding water in the Tongue and Powder rivers. The two rivers run
through coal bed methane country in both states. Montana has passed specific
methane-related pollution limits on the rivers that Wyoming must meet at the
state line. Wyoming and energy companies are now suing Montana in federal court
over the standards.
Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank rejected the
claims of Montana.
At issue is water in southeastern Montana's Tongue
and Powder rivers. The two rivers begin in north-central Wyoming and flow north
into Montana. The Tongue dumps into the Yellowstone River at Miles City; the
Powder dumps in just down stream at Terry.
Because the Yellowstone's water affects three states,
Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota signed a compact in 1950 divvying out how much
of the Yellowstone River's water the three state's may use.
(Agencies)
