Are there ways to right past injustices or mistakes? Where does equity fit into the western water equation?

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Brian Wallace
Chairman for the Washoe Tribe of Nevada

• In context of Indian Water Rights, it appears that the tools we have to sort these issues out, and the environment that we are working in are doctrinally conflictive—in case of the trustee—to uphold the public trust and the Indian trust puts it in somewhat of a conflict of interests with very difficult choices . . .
       

David Getches
Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law

• Most groundwater is connected to a stream underground.
       
• How do our doctrines serve the past, and how can they serve the present? [The point is] not to let go of the tradition, but to find the flexibility in it.
       

Delbert Farmer
Shoshone Bannock Tribe

• The real issue is . . .the clouds . . . we all know that's where the water comes from. So what is this deal about "prior appropriation" or "first in time" and "beneficial use?" It's the clouds . . . As far as the Shoshone Bannock is concerned . . . we lay claim to the clouds.
       

Albert Barker
Attorney

• I don't want to leave the impression that the claims for off-reservation rights in particular are indisputable because . . . we are seeing the Winters doctrine attempted to be expanded . . . off of the reservation to make water right claims.
       

Wendy Wilson
Organizational development consultant, River Network; Lobbyist and spokesperson for environmental causes

• I'm interested in getting water back in streams and ensuring rivers have water rights for many purposes . . . Why aren't we requiring that every time a water right is transferred from an irrigation to municipal use that the fish, the birds, the wildlife, the Indians all get a 25% kickback?
       

David Getches
Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law

• It's not about justice, it's about law.
       
• The biggest challenge is the way that we make decisions about how we're going to use water.
       

Robert Matt
Wildlife Manager, Coeur d'Alene Tribe

• What sense of obligation needs to be retained in addressing impacts of the past . . . as we look to even an expanded use of capturing water for human needs into the future?
       

David Getches
Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law

• What often gets overlooked are issues of fairness.
       

Kay Brothers
Deputy General Manager of Southern Nevada Water Authority Engineering and Operations

• We can't ignore what happened in the past, but we need to stike compromises.
       

John Keys
Commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation

• . . . at the time it seemed like the best thing to do.
       

John Tracy
Executive Director of the Center for Watersheds and Environmental Sustainability at the Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada

• What are the consequences of going down this path?
       

David Getches
Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law

• We have to be somewhat forgiving, but we now have a legacy of unintended consequences.