But in so doing, U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Jenkins only partially resolved a long-running dispute between the Bureau of Reclamation and a Utah County-based water users group that is seeking to change its allotment of Strawberry water from agricultural to municipal and industrial use.

In a complex, 48-page decision released last week, Jenkins ruled that the United States remains the "legal owner and appropriator" of Strawberry water rights, and thus retains the authority to file applications for changes in operations and to approve applications by the Strawberry Water Users Association, which has contested federal water authority for nearly a decade.

John Mabey, a water rights attorney based in Salt Lake City, calls the decision "significant," in that it clarifies who is the ultimate rights holder of not only Strawberry's water, but throughout the Central Utah Project, a sprawling network of reservoirs that take water from the Colorado River Basin.

"There is a definite precedent being set in terms of federal project water in Utah," Mabey said Wednesday. "It's the same as every other federal project. The U.S. holds legal rights to the water rights. Jenkins said the [Strawberry water users group] does not have the authority to file change applications on its own."

Still, notes Reed Murray, program director of the Central Utah Project, "this is a very complex issue and it's still going to take awhile to sort through."

At the same time, Jenkins ruled that the U.S. government - through the Bureau of Reclamation - and the water users group "remain bound to each other" under a 1991 agreement. Neither, he wrote, "can act without due regard for the other" when applications for changes are filed concerning Strawberry water rights.

The decision emanates from a 1997 dispute between the bureau and the water users association over an application the Strawberry group filed with the state engineer to alter its annual allotment of 61,000 acre-feet of reservoir water from agricultural to municipal and industrial use. But the bureau balked, arguing that only the federal government, as the sole owner of Strawberry's water rights, had the ability to file such an application with the state.

Jenkins upheld that argument, affirming the federal government's ownership of Strawberry's water. But he also ruled that the bureau could not act in ways that are detrimental to the water users association, and wrote that "at a minimum, the United States . . . must voluntarily join in a [Strawberry water users group] initiated application for a point of diversion or a change of purpose."

In other words, the bureau has the water rights, but must cooperate in forwarding the user group's request. Any further disputes over the application itself must be resolved by the state court, Jenkins wrote.

jbaird@sltrib.com

"There is a definite precedent being set in terms of federal project water in Utah. It's the same as every other federal project. The U.S. holds legal rights to the water rights. [Judge Bruce] Jenkins said the [Strawberry water users group] does not have the authority to file change applications on its own."

JOHN MABEY

A water rights attorney based in Salt Lake City