Court denies water users’ compensation claims in ‘Takings Case’

After 15 years of litigation, culminating in a lengthy trial last January that brought over 25 Klamath Project water users to Washington, D.C., the United Stated Court of Federal Claims judge hearing the “Takings Case” ruled in favor of the United States. The water users sought just compensation for taking of their water rights in 2001 when the United States reallocated irrigation water to threatened and endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. Judge Marian Blank Horn’s 75 page opinion, which was filed on Sept. 29, concluded that, “The government’s actions in 2001, did not, therefore, constitute a taking of these plaintiffs’ property under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution or effect an impairment of their rights under the Klamath Compact.” If the court had ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the government would have been ordered to compensate water users for a “physical takings” of their property. That was estimated upwards of $28 million...more

The opinion is embedded below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Yd5M8kgeNtSVZIQnBjajdvQk0/view?usp=sharing