The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Nevada is hailing a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a long-running water case.

The court said the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District owes the tribe for stealing water from Pyramid Lake, located entirely on the reservation. A federal judge ruled that the tribe was entitled to 200,000 acre-feet from 1979-1984 -- an amount that the 9th Circuit said might be too low.

"The district had been thumbing its nose at the 9th Circuit, and the 9th Circuit really put its foot down and said, `You have no business doing this, and you have to pay it back,'" Don Springmeyer, an attorney for the tribe, told the Associated Press.

The district hasn't decided whether it will ask the full 9th Circuit to rehear the case or wait until Judge Howard McKibben makes further rulings in the lower court.

Get the Story:
Court denies appeal in tribal irrigation fight (AP 4/21)
District Must Pay Back Water Taken from Lake (Courthouse News Service 4/21)

9th Circuit Decision:
Pyramid Lake Pauite Tribe v. Truckee Irrigation District (April 20, 2010)