Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado

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Act of May 31, 1939, ch. 155, 53 Stat. 785 [hereinafter 1938 Compact] (attached hereto as Appendix A). Although the negotiators of the 1938 Compact intended the compact “to remove all causes of present and future controversy among these States and between citizens of one of these States and citizens of another State with respect to the use of the waters of the Rio Grande,” id. at 785, that lasting peace has not been achieved, as evidenced by the periodic litigation between signatory States since the compact’s ratification. See, e.g., Texas v. New Mexico, 342 U.S. 874 (1951); Texas v. Colorado, 389 U.S. 1000 (1967). The United States Supreme Court granted leave to Texas in 2014 to file the instant Complaint, in which Texas claims that various actions of New Mexico deprive Texas of water to which it is entitled under the 1938 Compact. See Texas v. New Mexico, 134 S. Ct. 1050 (2014). In its Order granting Texas leave to file its Complaint, the Court also granted New Mexico sixty days within which to file a motion to dismiss the case. See id. With leave of the Court, see Texas v. New Mexico, 134 S. Ct. 1783 (2014), the United States filed a Complaint in Intervention to protect what it termed “distinctively federal interests” concerning the effect this dispute has on the Rio Grande Project, a federal reclamation project operated by the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior on the Rio Grande between Elephant Butte Reservoir, located approximately 105 miles from the New Mexico-Texas border, and Fort Quitman, Texas.

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