Nevada v. United States

463 U.S. 110 (1983)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The United States (P) filed a complaint asserting a claim to 10,000 cubic feet of water per second for a Newlands Reclamation Project. In addition, P asserted a claim of 500 cubic feet per second for the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation. The water claimed was from the Truckee River which flows out of Lake Tahoe in California through Reno Nevada and ends in Lake Pyramid which has no outlet. After 10 years of litigation, settlement negotiations were initiated, and a settlement agreement was finally signed in 1935 and finally agreed to by the Newlands Reclamation Project in 1944 (it has come under different management since the institution of the suit). P then sued in 1973 for additional rights for the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation. P asserted that the prior litigation only resolved irrigation rights and now it was suing for sufficient waters for the maintenance and preservation of Pyramid Lake and the maintenance of the lower reaches of the Truckee River as a natural spawning ground for fish. Ds asserted res judicata. That defense was sustained, and the suit was dismissed. P appealed.