BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The North Dakota Supreme Court has sided with a family in a long-disputed case involving mineral rights on land taken for the construction of a dam that created Lake Sakakawea.
In a unanimous ruling Thursday, the high court upheld a lower court ruling last year that concluded the William Wilkinson family and not the state of North Dakota own the oil and gas mineral rights under a portion of the Missouri River reservoir.
Wilkinson attorney Josh Swanson called it a “resounding victory” and “landmark decision” that will impact mineral rights owners along the 180-mile-long lake created in the 1950s when the Garrison Dam was built on the Missouri River.
Swanson said the family is owed more $1 million in oil and gas royalties that are currently in an escrow-type count. The high court sent part of the case back to the lower court to determine the damages.
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, whose office represented the state, did not immediately return messages for comment.
The family filed a lawsuit in 2012 that centered around ownership of the mineral interest under land that the federal government acquired from J.T. and Evelyn Wilkinson in 1958 as part of the Garrison Dam project.
The Wilkinsons argued it was unconstitutional for the state to take the mineral rights from the family.
Stenehjem has said in court documents that the land was already part of Missouri River channel and was not “inundated” by water when Lake Sakakawea was created, meaning the state owned the minerals.
At issue was the so-called ordinary high water mark of the Missouri River as it existed before the dam was built. State law defines an ordinary high water mark as “…that line below which the action of the water is frequent enough either to prevent the growth of vegetation or to restrict its growth to predominantly wetland species.”
Northwest District Court Judge Paul Jacobson originally ruled in 2016 that the state owned the property and mineral interests. The state Supreme Court reversed his decision a year later and sent it back to the lower court. Jacobson then reversed course and sided with the family.
The state appealed the decision to the North Dakota Supreme Court, which said “the Wilkinson property is above the (ordinary high water mark) of the historical Missouri riverbed channel and is not State sovereign lands.”
The state, federal and tribal governments, land owners and oil companies all have an interest in oil that lies under Lake Sakakawea.
Drillers first tapped crude underneath the lake about a decade ago using advanced horizontal drill techniques. But the drilling technology that allows rigs to be set up far from the shoreline also led to lawsuits due to conflicting claims of ownership of the same minerals.
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