An interstate compact allocating supplies from the Red River does not allow Texas to pull water from within Oklahoma’s borders, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week.
Writing for the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argues that if the
An interstate compact allocating supplies from the Red River does not allow Texas to pull water from within Oklahoma’s borders, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week.
Writing for the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argues that if the drafters of the Red River Compact meant for Texas to be able to draw water from Oklahoma, the language of the compact would have been much more explicit about the terms and mechanics. The justices used examples from other interstate water compacts to defend Oklahoma’s ability to restriction out-of-state water diversions.
“The Red River Compact does not pre-empt Oklahoma’s water statutes because the Compact creates no cross-border rights in its signatories for these statutes to infringe,” Sotomayor writes. “Nor do Oklahoma’s laws run afoul of the Commerce Clause.”
Weather-related disasters last year in the U.S. accounted for $US 110 billion in damages, the second highest in the nation’s history behind Katrina-led 2005, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Eleven disasters did more than $US1 billion in damages, topped by Hurricane Sandy at $US 65 billion.
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