Decree 731 (Interim Walker River Decree) Nevada In response to the suit filed in 1902 (Miller et Lux v. Rickey), subsequently renamed to the Pacific Livestock Company v. Antelope Valley Land and Cattle Company, water rights adjudication in the Federal District Court for Nevada resulted in the issuance of Decree 731 on March 24, 1919. During the Nevada gold mining boom of the early 1900’s, Thomas B. Rickey was actively involved in both mining and banking as well as ranching. So much so, in fact, that he suffered failure in the panic of 1907 and his ranching properties were sold to the Antelope Valley Land and Cattle Company. Also, the agricultural holdings of Muller and Lux were taken over by the Pacific Livestock Company. The Decree addressed the amount of water to which each party was entitled, the source of the water, the area to which it was to be applied, and the priority date for each use. The Decree also encompassed many, but not all, of the other water users on the river, particularly the water rights of the smaller agricultural water users as well as the irrigation rights of the Walker River Indian Reservation. Five separate water rights for the reservation were quantified with priority dates ranging from 1868 to 1886 (the reservation was established on November 29, 1859) and the government was permitted to purchase additional rights from the proposed Topaz Reservoir to supply the reservation. These five water rights included: (1) 1868 priority date – 4.70 cfs, 385.95 acres irrigated, (2) 1872 priority date – 3.55 cfs, 295.80 acres irrigated, (3) 1875 priority date – 6.15 cfs, 512.80 acres irrigated, (4) 1883 priority date – 7.50 cfs, 625.20 acres irrigated, and (5) 1886 priority date – 1.03 cfs, 85.80 acres irrigated. In effect, the Decree addressed essentially only direct diversions from the river and its tributaries. Except for some general provisions pertaining to the Antelope Valley Land and Cattle Company’s storage rights, particularly those relating to the prospective development of Alkali Lake (Topaz) Reservoir, no other storage rights were quantified. As an interim measure, Decree 731 did assign priorities and amounts of water for irrigating specified lands of the parties and allowed incidental domestic and stock- watering uses to be served under the irrigation rights.