In those cases, Wyoming sought to enforce this Court's earlier decree apportioning the Laramie River.

A compact agreement among states would also avoid endless litigation and prevent California from asserting the widely-recognized western water law of prior appropriation over the waters of the Colorado should California interests (either private or public) move rapidly to build dams and divert water on the lower Colorado River.

It is considered, ordered and decreed that the defendants, their officers, agents and servants, be, and they are hereby, severally enjoined from diverting or taking from the Laramie River and its tributaries in the state of Colorado more than fifteen thousand five hundred (15, 500) acre-feet of water per annum in virtue of or through what is designated in the pleadings and …

—the costs of this suit be apportioned among and paid by the parties thereto as follows: The State of Wyoming one-third, the State of Colorado one-third, and the two corporate defendants jointly onethird

Limits total water exports from the North Platte River in Colorado to no more than 60,000 acre-feet during any 10-year period.

—that the Secretary of the Interior, as an appropriator under the irrigation laws of Wyoming, will be bound by the adjudication of Wyoming's rights, and is not an indispensable party; that the allegations of the bill are not vague and indefinite; and if Nebraska's contention that there are no tributaries of the North Platte and the Platte rivers between the state line and the City of …

Conversely, if a waterway is non-navigable at the time of a territory's admission, title remains in the federal government

It might therefore be more accurately labeled “equitable allocation” or “equitable apportionment” as it has been termed by the US Supreme Court in its elaboration of the doctrine since the early 20th century in disputes between the states

Additionally, the title to lands below the OHWL is held subject to the paramount power of Congress to regulate commerce and navigation

The Laramie has been the subject of considerable litigation between Wyoming and Colorado, with the 1922 decree being the most salient decision

[BOOK] The Nile in Legal and Political Perspective: Between Change and Continuity

[BOOK] Western Water Rights and the US Supreme Court

[BOOK] Transboundary water disputes: State conflict and the assessment of their …