Oklahoma v. New Mexico

• Decision Date: 17 June 1991
• Docket Number: O,No. 109,109
• Citation: 115 L.Ed.2d 207,501 U.S. 221,111 S.Ct. 2281
• Parties: States of OKLAHOMA and Texas, Plaintiffs v. State of NEW MEXICO. rig
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

501 U.S. 221

111 S.Ct. 2281

115 L.Ed.2d 207

States of OKLAHOMA and Texas, Plaintiffs

v State of NEW MEXICO.

No. 109, Orig.

Argued April 16, 1991.

Decided June 17, 1991.

Syllabus

The Canadian River flows through New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle before entering Oklahoma. Its waters are apportioned among these States by the Canadian River Compact. Article IV(a) of the Compact gives New Mexico free and unrestricted use of all waters "originating" in the river's drainage basin above Conchas Dam—a structure that predates the Compact and provides water to the Tucumcari Project, a federal reclamation project—and IV(b) gives it free and unrestricted use of waters "originating" in the river's drainage basin below that dam, limiting the "conservation storage" for impounding those waters to 200,000 acre-feet. In 1963, New Mexico constructed Ute Dam and Reservoir downstream from Conchas Dam. In 1984, Ute Reservoir was enlarged, giving it a storage capacity of 272,800 acre-feet, which has been reduced to about 237,900 feet because of silting. Oklahoma and Texas filed this litigation, contending that Article IV(b)'s limitation is imposed on reservoir capacity available for conservation, and that capacity for the so-called "desilting pool" portion of Ute Reservoir was not exempt from that limitation because it was not allocated solely to "sediment control." In 1987, while the case was pending, the river above Conchas Dam flooded, spilling over that dam, and Ute Reservoir caught a sufficient amount of spill waters to exceed 200,000 acre-feet. When New Mexico refused to count the spill waters for purposes of the limitation, Texas and Oklahoma filed a supplemental complaint, claiming that if the limitation applies to actual stored water, then water spilling over Conchas Dam or seeping back from Tucumcari Project constitutes waters originating below Conchas Dam under Article IV(b). As relevant here, the Special Master's Report recommended that (1) Article IV(b) imposes a limitation on stored water, not physical reservoir capacity (Part VI of the Report); (2) water originating in the river basin above Conchas Dam but reaching the river's mainstream below that dam as a result of spills or releases from the dam or seepage and return flow from Tucumcari Project are subject to the Article IV(b) limitation (Part VII); (3) the issue whether and to what extent the water in Ute Reservoir's "desilting pool" should be exempt from the Article IV(b) limitation should be referred to the Canadian River Compact Commission for negotiations and possible resolution (Part VIII); and (4) if the recommendations are approved, New Mexico will have been in violation of Article IV(b) since 1987, and the case should be returned to the Special Master for determination of any injury to Oklahoma and Texas and recommendations for appropriate relief. The States have filed exceptions.

Held:

1. Oklahoma's exception to the recommendation in Part VI of the Master's Report is overruled. Nothing on the Compact's face indicates a clear intention to base New Mexico's limitation on available reservoir capacity when Texas' limitation is based on stored water. Early drafts uniformly referred to stored water, and the contemporaneous memoranda and statements of compact commissioners and their staffs do not explain why a change to "storage capacity" was made in the final draft, although it is most probable the terms were being used loosely and interchangeably. Pp. 229-231.

2. Also overruled are New Mexico's exceptions to the recommendation in Part VII of the Report. New Mexico errs in arguing that the term "originating" is unambiguous, and that there are no restrictions on the impoundment of the spill waters, since they are waters originating above Conchas Dam, to which the State has free and unrestricted use under Article IV(a). Rather, the Special Master correctly concluded that the Compact's drafters intended in Article IV(a) to give New Mexico free and unrestricted use of waters "originating" in the river's drainage basin above Conchas Dam only if the waters were stored, used, or diverted for use at or above Conchas Dam. There is substantial evidence that, in drafting the Compact, Texas and Oklahoma agreed that storage limits were not necessary for waters above Conchas Dam because the waters in that basin had been fully developed, that any future water development would necessarily occur below that dam, and that 200,000 acre-feet of storage rights would satisfy all of New Mexico's future needs below the dam. The Compact's ambiguous use of the term "originating" can be harmonized with the drafters' apparent intent only if it is interpreted so that waters spilling over or released from Conchas Dam, or returned from Tucumcari Project, are considered waters originating below Conchas Dam. Thus, any water stored in excess of the 200,000 acre-feet limit should have been allowed to flow through Ute Dam for use by the downstream States, rather than being impounded by New Mexico. Pp. 231-240.

3. Texas' and Oklahoma's exception to the recommendation in Part VIII of the Report is sustained insofar as those States argue that the "desilting pool" issue should not be referred to the Commission. There was no legal basis for the Master's refusing to decide whether the water in the desilting pool should be counted towards the Article IV(b) limitation, since a dispute clearly exists in this case, and since there is no claim that the issue has not been properly presented. Arizona v. California, 373 U.S. 546, 83 S.Ct. 1468, 10 L.Ed.2d 542. Thus, the matter must be remanded to the Master for such further proceedings as may be necessary and a recommendation on the merits. Pp. 240-241.

Exceptions sustained in part and overruled in part, and case remanded.

WHITE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which MARSHALL, BLACKMUN, STEVENS, and SOUTER, JJ., joined, and in Parts I, II, and IV of which REHNQUIST, C.J., and O'CONNOR, SCALIA, and KENNEDY, JJ., joined. REHNQUIST, C.J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which O'CONNOR, SCALIA, and KENNEDY, JJ., joined.

Marian Matthews, Santa Fe, N.M., for defendant New Mexico.

Paul Elliott, Austin, Tex., for plaintiff Texas.

R. Thomas Lay, Oklahoma City, Okl., for plaintiff Oklahoma.

Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case, an original action brought by the States of Oklahoma and Texas against the State of New Mexico, arises out of a dispute over the interpretation of various provisions of the Canadian River Compact (Compact), which was ratified by New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas in 1951 and consented to by Congress by the Act of May 17, 1952, 66 Stat. 74. Each State has filed exceptions to a report submitted by the Special Master (Report) appointed by this Court.

I

The Canadian River ¹ is an interstate river which rises along the boundary between southeastern Colorado and northeastern New Mexico, in the vicinity of Raton, New Mexico. From its headwaters, the Canadian River flows south to the Conchas Dam in New Mexico, then generally east for 65 river miles to the Ute Reservoir in New Mexico, and then into the Texas Panhandle. After traversing the panhandle, the river flows into Oklahoma where it eventually empties into the Arkansas River, a tributary of the Mississippi.

In the late 1930s, Congress authorized, and the Corps of Engineers completed, the construction of Conchas Dam on the mainstream of the Canadian River, approximately 30 miles northwest of Tucumcari, New Mexico. Congress also authorized the Tucumcari Project, a federal reclamation project designed to irrigate over 42,000 acres of land and serve the municipal and industrial needs of Tucumcari, New Mexico. The project lands are situated southeast of Conchas Dam and are served by the Conchas Canal which diverts water from Conchas Reservoir. The project was completed in 1950.

In 1949, the Texas congressional delegation proposed that Congress authorize a massive Canadian River reclamation project, known as the Sanford Project because of its proximity to Sanford, Texas, for the purpose of serving the municipal and industrial requirements of 11 Texas cities in the Texas panhandle region. Legislation to authorize the Sanford Project was introduced in the House of Representatives, along with a bill authorizing New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas to negotiate an interstate compact to equitably appor- tion the waters of the Canadian River. The legislation authorizing the States to enter into an interstate compact was passed by Congress and the Canadian River Compact Commission was created. The Compact Commission consisted of one commissioner from each State and one federal representative. Each commissioner and the federal representative had the assistance of engineering advisors, a group collectively known as the Engineering Advisory Committee. This committee submitted several proposals to the Compact Commission. The final draft of the Canadian River Compact was presented on December 6, 1950, and was signed on that day by the members of the Compact Commission.²

Congress enacted legislation authorizing the Sanford Project on December 29, 1950, but as a result of an amendment proposed by the New Mexico delegation, the bill specifically provided that actual construction of the project could not commence until Congress consented to the Compact. See 64 Stat. 1124, 43 U.S.C. § 600c(b). That consent was granted on May 17, 1952, 66 Stat. 74, and the Sanford Dam, creating Lake Meredith Reservoir with a capacity of over 1.4 million acre-feet of water, was completed in 1964. Lake Meredith is approximately 165 river miles east of Ute Reservoir and is located north of Amarillo, Texas. During the 1950's, New Mexico selected a site on the Canadian River mainstream approximately one mile west of Logan, New Mexico, and about 45 miles downstream from Conchas Dam for the construction of Ute Dam and Reservoir. Construction of Ute Dam was completed...