Clark Fork-Pend Oreille River Basin Adjudication

The purpose of a Water Right Adjudication is to catalog and confirm through the court all existing Water Rights in a hydrologic basin, and to which property those Water Rights belong, binding all property owners and parties to the court decree of those Water Rights. On June 15, 2021, the 5th Judicial District Court issued a commencement order for the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille River Basin Adjudication, a legal process in which a court catalogs and confirms all existing water rights in the Clark Fork and Pend Oreille River Basin within the state of Idaho. The adjudication will review all water rights held by local, state, and federal governments, Native American tribes, and private property owners. The commencement order gives water users within the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille River Basin the option of deferring the filing of small domestic and stockwater claims. The adjudication includes both surface water and groundwater rights in those portions of Boundary, Bonner, and Kootenai Counties within the CFPRBA boundary. The Clark Fork Adjudication is the third phase of the Northern Idaho Adjudication, following Coeur d’Alene River Basin Adjudication (CSRBA) and the Palouse River Basin Adjudication (PRBA). For more information, visit the IDWR Adjudication page.