AG asks Okla. high court to decide water case

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to decide the rights of two Oklahoma-based American Indian tribes to water in major streams in their historic territories in southeastern Oklahoma.

Pruitt filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, asking the court to assume original jurisdiction over a comprehensive stream adjudication of the water rights of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. The Supreme Court did not immediately schedule a hearing.

The request was made six months after the tribes filed a federal lawsuit to bar the state and Oklahoma City from transporting water from the region and just one week after Gov. Mary Fallin asked the tribes mediate a solution. The tribes refused to drop the federal lawsuit.

In a statement, Fallin said state officials were reluctant to file the Supreme Court case. She said she hopes a water policy can still be developed through negotiation “without a prolonged and expensive legal battle.”

The tribes’ attorney, Michael Burrage, said he had not seen the state's petition and declined to comment.

Choctaw Nation Chief Greg Pyle and Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby released a joint statement that said the state's legal action will not resolve the federal court issues that are at the heart of the water rights dispute.

“We have made plain in writing that we want to protect the existing permitted uses of water for all Oklahomans and have hopes of reaching a resolution outside of the courtroom,” the statement said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Sardis Lake, which straddles Latimer and Pushmataha counties. The tribes claim that an 1830 treaty gives them authority over water resources in their southeastern Oklahoma jurisdictions. State and city officials say the tribes relinquished those rights in subsequent treaties.

The state's filing is the first step in what could become a lengthy, complicated process to determine who has the rights to stream and surface water in the Kiamichi, Clear Boggy and Muddy Boggy basins. The state's petition identifies almost 200 defendants and says anyone who claims the right to use water from any of the basins could be included.

In August, the tribes sued the state and Oklahoma City in U.S. District Court to stop the Water Resources Board from selling the rights to water storage in southeastern Oklahoma's Sardis Lake to the Oklahoma City Water Utility Trust. The state has asked a federal judge to dismiss the tribal lawsuit.

Burrage has said the lawsuit's goal was to have the state recognize the tribe's sovereignty over water in territories covered by treaties with the federal government and to determine how much water is actually in the region to make sure tribal needs are met.

State and city officials have expressed alarm over the tribe's water rights claims in 22 southeastern Oklahoma counties. An amended federal lawsuit filed last month also claimed the 100-mile long Atoka Pipeline that has delivered water to homes and businesses in Oklahoma City and other central Oklahoma communities for almost 50 years.

“In short, the tribes, over the past decade, have made various attempts to inject uncertainty into the state's ability to regulate the waters within the southeastern corner of the state, and in particular the basins, threatening water rights under existing and pending state permits – all part of a concerted effort to coerce the state into entering a compact or agreement giving the tribes water rights, including the power to regulate waters in the basins,” the state's Supreme Court lawsuit says.

Jim Couch, Oklahoma City's city manager and a trustee for the Water Utility Trust, said the state had no choice but to seek adjudication.

“We acknowledge that the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes have some rights to water in the basins, but their broad claims are unprecedented and threaten the economy and well-being of all of Oklahoma,” Couch said.

“Further, the tribes own less than 5 percent of the land in these water basins and fewer than 10 percent of the people in this part of the state identify themselves as members of the tribes to the U.S. Census,” he said.