Missouri loses appeal over large North Dakota water project

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- A federal appeals court panel on Friday rejected the state of Missouri's challenge to a massive upstream Missouri River water project in North Dakota, potentially ending a second legal battle over the project that has been in the works for more than three decades.

The $244 million Northwest Area Water Supply project aims to bring river water to 82,000 people in northwestern North Dakota, giving them a reliable source of quality water. Missouri worries the project will diminish the river water it needs for drinking, farming and shipping. The state sued in 2009.

The underlying dispute centers on how much water NAWS will actually use. Missouri maintains it will deplete the river by 3.5 billion gallons each year, causing "manifold injuries to Missouri's sovereign and proprietary interests." North Dakota counters that the number is misleading because the river system has the capacity for more than 23 trillion gallons of water.

The legal battle didn't address the water disagreement. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in Washington, D.C., ruled in 2017 that Missouri had no authority to sue the federal government over the matter. The state appealed, but a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld Collyer's ruling.

Read more: http://www.newstribune.com/news/missouri/story/2019/may/03/missouri-loses-appeal-over-large-north-dakota-water-project/777155/