State of Montana, Plaintiff v. State of Wyoming and State of North Dakota (563 U.S. 368)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 2, 2011 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 563 U.S. 368 · 131 S. Ct. 1765
- Decided
- May 2, 2011
- Term
- October Term 2010
- Vote
- 7–1
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Interstate Relations
- Disposition
- Petition denied or appeal dismissed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Unspecifiable
Opinion excerpt
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. This case arises out of a dispute between Montana and Wyoming over the Yellowstone River Compact (or Compact). Montana alleges that Wyoming has breached Article V(A) of the. Compact by allowing its pre-1950 water appropriators to increase their net water consumption by improving the efficiency of their irrigation systems. The new systems, Montana alleges, employ sprinklers that reduce the amount of wastewater returned to the river, thus depriving Montana’s downstream pre-1950 appropriators of water to which they are entitled. The Special Master has filed a First Interim Report determining, as relevant here, that Montana’s allegation fails to state a claim because more efficient irrigation systems are permissible under the Compact so long as the conserved water is used to irrigate the same acreage watered in 1950. We agree with the Special Master and overrule Montana’s exception to that conclusion. I From its headwaters in Wyoming, the Yellowstone River flows nearly 700 miles northeast into Montana and then North Dakota, where it joins the Missouri River. Several of its tributaries, including the Clarks Fork, Tongue, Powder, and Bighorn Rivers, also begin in Wyoming and cross into Montana before joining the main stem of the Yellowstone River. This river system’s monthly and annual flows, which are dictated largely by snow…
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