From the Associated Press via The Denver Post:
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s opinion for the court made plain that the justices did not find this a close case. “We hold that Tarrant’s claims lack merit,” Sotomayor said.
The case arose from a federal lawsuit the district filed in 2007 against the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and the Oklahoma Water Conservation Storage Commission that challenged the state’s water laws and sought a court order to prevent the board from enforcing them. Lower courts ruled for Oklahoma, including the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It found that the Red River Compact protects Oklahoma’s water statutes from the legal challenge.
Legislation adopted by the Oklahoma Legislature in 2009 said no out-of-state water permit can prevent Oklahoma from meeting its obligations under compacts with other states. It also requires the Water Resources Board to consider in-state water shortages or needs when considering applications for out-of-state water sales.
The Obama administration backed the Texas district at the Supreme Court, saying Oklahoma may not categorically prohibit Texas water users from obtaining water in Oklahoma. But the administration took no position on whether the Texans ultimately should get the water they are seeking in this case.
More coverage from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
The ruling holds implications for a large swath of North Texas because TRWD serves an 11-county area that includes the cities of Fort Worth, Arlington and Mansfield and gets thirstier as its population continues to grow rapidly.
Sotomayor noted that the population of Dallas-Fort Worth increased 23 percent from 2000 to 2010 (from 5.1 million to 6.4 million). “This growth has strained regional water supplies, and north Texas’ need for water has been exacerbated in recent years by a long and costly drought,” she wrote. TRWD has estimated that its clients will need an additional 400,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2060, which makes increasing the supply imperative…
…for more than six years, the water district also has been trying to tap up to 130 billion gallons from a Red River tributary through a decades-old agreement.
Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana signed the Red River Compact in 1978, and Congress’ approval in 1980 made it federal law. But since 2007, TRWD and Oklahoma have been fighting in court over whether the pact allows states or their agencies to cross borders to get their share of water. Oklahoma said no because its state laws block any transfer past the river. The water district argued that the compact’s silence on cross-border movement allowed it to buy the water and that the Oklahoma laws unconstitutionally interfered with interstate commerce. The U.S. solicitor general sided with TRWD’s view that it could get water north of the river to secure its equal share, but the justices weren’t persuaded.
“States rarely relinquish their sovereign powers, so when they do we would expect a clear indication of such devolution, not inscrutable silence,” Sotomayor wrote. “Adopting Tarrant’s reading would necessarily entail assuming that Oklahoma and three other states silently surrendered substantial control over the water within their borders when they agreed to the Compact. … we find this unlikely to have been the intent of the Compact’s signatories.”
Sotomayor, though an East Coaster through and through, showed some appreciation for the long-running southern rivalry. “The Red River has lent its name to a valley, a Civil War campaign, and a famed college football rivalry between the Longhorns of Texas and the Sooners of Oklahoma,” she wrote. “But college pride has not been the only source of controversy between Texas and Oklahoma regarding the Red River. The River has been the cause of numerous historical conflicts between the two States, leading to a mobilization of their militias at one time, and the declaration of martial law along a stretch of the River by Oklahoma Governor ‘Alfalfa Bill’ Murray at another.”[…]
Water is essential. But getting enough to where it’s wanted won’t ever be simple.
More Tarrant v. Herrmann coverage here.