New Mexico suffers setback in Texas water case
The nation’s highest court will likely have to settle a dispute between Texas and New Mexico over management of water from the Rio Grande – a case with the potential to dramatically curb groundwater pumping in some of New Mexico’s most fertile valleys and force the state to pay as much as $1 billion in damages.
Officials in both states have been waiting nearly a year for a recommendation on how the case should be handled.
Now, a special master assigned by the U.S. Supreme Court is recommending the rejection of a motion by New Mexico to dismiss the case, meaning it can move forward as long as the high court agrees.
Texas sued in 2013, claiming New Mexico failed to deliver water as required under a decades-old compact involving the river that serves more than 6 million people in several major cities and irrigates more than 3,100 square miles of farmland in the U.S. and Mexico.
Read more: http://www.abqjournal.com/806979/high-court-will-likely-have-to-settle-nmtexas-water-dispute.html