Supreme Court struggles with terms in dam dispute

A Supreme Court dominated by Easterners tried to make sense Wednesday of a Western water dispute. The court heard arguments in a lawsuit between a power company and the state of Montana over who owns the riverbeds beneath 10 dams sitting on three Montana rivers, including the Great Falls of the Missouri River — five scenic waterfalls near the present day city of Great Falls. The state says it's owed more than $50 million in back rent and interest from the company, PPL Montana. For an answer, the court is looking back as far as the travels of Lewis and Clark more than 200 years ago. The outcome could affect property rights, public access and wildlife management along Montana's rivers, as well as those in other states. The power company is appealing a Montana Supreme Court ruling that the state owns the submerged land beneath the dams. The decision turned in large part on that court's findings that the three rivers were navigable when Montana became a state, despite the presence of significant waterfalls on two of the waterways. The titles to riverbeds beneath commercially navigable waterways go to state governments upon statehood. Non-navigable riverbed ownership stays with the federal government...more