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Attorney General Looks Back At Years Of Litigation Over Tongue River

Yellowstone River
National Park Service

The state of Montana sued Wyoming in 2007, claiming that it violated the Yellowstone River Compact of 1950 by withholding too much water for irrigation and coal bed methane production. But at the end of December, the eight-year-long U.S. Supreme court case concerning the water flows of the Tongue River was finally settled.

I talked with Wyoming Attorney General Peter Michael about how, in 2011, the Supreme Court decided the most important issue that allowed Wyoming irrigators to increase their usage of the Tongue River. And how, since then, the case has been more concerned with Montana’s responsibility for its Tongue River Reservoir. I also asked the Attorney General about some of the issues where the Special Master did conclude that Wyoming was at fault.

Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of WPM's award-winning podcast The Modern West. Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics from wildlife to Native American issues to agriculture.
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