The Supreme Court settled a nearly 70-year-old dispute on Monday, Dec. 15, about the undersea boundary between California and federal territory. The ruling will help resolve conflicting claims over oil and gas leases and prevent future litigation, federal and state officials said.

The issue had its origins in 1945, when California issued oil leases on undersea land near Long Beach. President Harry Truman declared that all submerged lands belong to the federal government. In 1947 the Supreme Court agreed, and federal officials sued California.

Congress attempted to resolve the conflict with a law that said states owned land up to three miles from their coasts, but the legislation did not set the precise location of that undersea border.

In Monday’s ruling the Supreme Court set the boundary in the form of 100 pages of map coordinates.

Sheri Pemberton, Chief of External Affairs at the California State Lands Commission, called the ruling “a huge achievement after all this time,” adding that “going forward there’s absolute certainty about what that boundary is.”

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it is “very pleased” with the decision that “comes as a result of many years of hard work.”

Pemberton noted California has not issued a new lease for offshore oil drilling since 1968.

In addition to its potential impact on future oil and gas leasing, the ruling may also affect alternative energy projects such as offshore wind- and wave-powered electrical generation, and desalination plants, according to Pemberton.