Almost 50 years ago, a lawsuit brought by ratepayers against Idaho Power provided the impetus for what would become the Snake River Basin Adjudication. Four decades and countless storied conflicts later, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia came to Boise to celebrate the completion of the comprehensive water rights adjudication.

Critical to completion of the adjudication was resolution of the approximately 1,100 treaty-based water rights the United States government claimed on behalf of the Nez Perce Tribe. These sweeping claims unsurprisingly triggered vigorous opposition, intense litigation, and in turn protracted negotiations, which ultimately resulted in a settlement Congress blessed in 2004.

That hard bargained, multi-pronged settlement quantified the Tribe’s water rights and moreover defined the terms of compliance with ambiguous regulatory standards under the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act. The agreement thus established an alternative to litigation over uncertain legal rules, creating stability and predictability for key river stakeholders for a period of thirty years, an extraordinary outcome in western water management.