In December, the US Supreme Court issued an opinion in
Texas v. New Mexico, a water law dispute involving the Pecos River.
The Compact
The Pecos River runs from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe, New Mexico, through New Mexico and Texas, and eventually into the Rio Grande River at the Texas-Mexico border near Del Rio, Texas. In 1949, Texas and New Mexico signed the Pecos River Compact, and Congress ratified the Compact. The Compact provides for the “equitable division and apportionment of the use of the waters of the Pecos River” with the intent to “remove causes of present and future controversies.”