In Sign Of Trend, Supreme Court To Hear Interstate Source Water Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear an interstate case over floodwaters that overwhelmed source water running through New Mexico and Texas, potentially the first of many such cases between states stemming from water issues caused by climate change.
At issue in this forthcoming argument, “Texas v. New Mexico,” is the right to store local floodwater, an increasingly contentious point as states throughout the country struggle with increasing summer temperatures and pervasive drought.
“Nearly a year after heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Odile in 2014, the Bureau of Reclamation told Texas that it could no longer store floodwaters in a [local dam] and released the waters downstream. The Lone Star State emptied 40,000 acre-feet of water from its Red Bluff Reservoir to accommodate the flow,” E&E News explained. “At New Mexico’s request, the special master who oversees a historic water-sharing compact between the states determined that those extra waters — which Texas was unable to use — counted toward the state’s allotment. Texas asked the Supreme Court to get involved.”
Though the Supreme Court’s review of the case has been delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak, if and when it is addressed, it is likely to start a trend of similar cases reaching it.
“Several other battles between states over water from rivers and aquifers could also soon make it to the nation’s highest bench, said Beveridge & Diamond PC principal John Cruden,” E&E News reported. “‘Because of [climate change], we’re going to see more of these,’ he said. ‘And they’re all going to be hard.’”
For instance, Texas is also currently in a separate legal dispute with New Mexico as well as Colorado over allotments of water downstream of a Rio Grande reservoir, Florida and Georgia are arguing over a shared river basin, and Mississippi and Tennessee are in a battle over groundwater stored along their shared border. Any or all of these cases could reach the Supreme Court in the foreseeable future.
All told, the presence of “Texas v. New Mexico” on the Supreme Court docket and this potential for additional cases indicate an increased focus on source water issues across the country. As stress on these supplies grows, the subsequent rulings are sure to have significant ramifications.
To read more on the laws that govern use of source water, visit Water Online’s Regulations And Legislation Solutions Center.