{"id":539856,"date":"2018-03-08T09:11:10","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T16:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=539856"},"modified":"2018-03-08T09:11:10","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T16:11:10","slug":"feds-get-ok-to-fight-alongside-texas-in-water-dispute-with-nm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/03\/feds-get-ok-to-fight-alongside-texas-in-water-dispute-with-nm\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds get OK to fight alongside Texas in water dispute with NM"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_539862\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-539862\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/TxTrib-RioGrande06-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"The Rio Grande\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/TxTrib-RioGrande06-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/TxTrib-RioGrande06-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/TxTrib-RioGrande06-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/TxTrib-RioGrande06-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/TxTrib-RioGrande06.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ivan Pierre Aguirre \/ The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rio Grande at the New Mexico-Texas border in December 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In the fight against New Mexico over the critical Rio Grande water supply, Texas has the federal government on its side.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And the feds can stay there, the U.S. Supreme Court\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/17pdf\/141orig_f204.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ruled<\/a>\u00a0Monday morning in a victory for Texas.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/03\/05\/federal-government-may-fight-texas-water-dispute-us-supreme-court-rule\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Monday\u2019s unanimous ruling decides one narrow question in a five-year-old suit over the 80-year-old Rio Grande Compact, a legal agreement governing water allocations between Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.\u00a0Texas sued New Mexico in 2013, arguing that the state was siphoning off more water than it\u2019s entitled to. New Mexico responded that the 1938 compact never explicitly stated how much water was supposed to end up in Texas and argued that Texas\u2019 case should be dismissed.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Historically, Texas has received about 43 percent of the river\u2019s water. But New Mexico has disrupted that ratio in recent years by pumping more groundwater \u2014 a method that has become vastly more common in the last several decades.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In 2014,\u00a0the federal government\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2014\/04\/02\/texas-hoping-edge-over-new-mexico-water-battle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">joined<\/a>\u00a0Texas\u2019 argument, filing similar claims against New Mexico and arguing that it, too, has a stake in the case. The question the high court resolved this week was whether the U.S. could intervene in this type of inter-state disagreement.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The court ruled that it could, given this case\u2019s \u201cdistinctively federal interests.\u201d Partly, that\u2019s because a breach of the contract could jeopardize the country\u2019s relationship with Mexico, which is also due certain water allocations from the Rio Grande water supply.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt is a huge win for the Texas side of the case,\u201d said Russell Johnson, a water attorney who\u2019s not involved in the case. \u201cYou not only have the Texas interest complaining, you have the federal government complaining that New Mexico\u2019s activities interfere with federal obligations.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Texas Attorney General\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/ken-paxton\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ken Paxton<\/a>\u00a0said the ruling would bolster the state&#8217;s case against New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Rio Grande plays an integral role in the water supply for Texas\u2019 border regions and farmers, and New Mexico\u2019s illegal actions have deprived Texans of this vital resource,\u201d he said in a statement released Monday evening.<\/p>\n<p>But lawyers for New Mexico dismissed Monday\u2019s ruling as \u201ca preliminary matter clarifying the United States\u2019 role in the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas] will continue to vigorously defend the rights of New Mexico water users and work with all parties to seek a fair resolution for New Mexicans,\u201d spokesman James Hallinan said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Monday\u2019s opinion is not a final win for Texas in this case. The case now heads back to Gregory Grimsal, a federally appointed \u201cspecial master\u201d who will make a preliminary ruling and submit that to the high court for its final decision.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In 2016, Grimsal\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/07\/15\/texas-and-new-mexico-are-still-fighting-over-rio-g\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recommended<\/a>\u00a0that the court deny New Mexico\u2019s motion to dismiss Texas\u2019 complaint. It\u2019s highly unlikely that there will be a final ruling before the court\u2019s term ends this summer.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">If Texas ultimately prevails in the case, it could win not just more water but also hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.<\/p>\n<p>Texas and New Mexico have often gone toe-to-toe over water rights, said Doug Caroom, a water attorney representing El Paso in this case who worked for the Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office decades ago during similar litigation. The federal government hasn\u2019t always been willing to intervene on Texas\u2019 behalf, he said \u2014\u00a0and in at least one case, that meant the suit was dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s good for us, because the federal government\u2019s a powerful ally,\u201d Caroom said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ruling is an apparent victory for Texas in a legal battle that has dragged on for more than five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":539862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2260,3272,277],"class_list":["post-539856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-texas","tag-u-s-supreme-court","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}