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Contracts Keyed to Fuller
Kansas v. Nebraska
Citation:
135 S. Ct. 1042 (2015)Facts
The Republican River originates in Colorado, flows through Nebraska, and then into Kansas, draining a 24,900-square-mile watershed. In 1943, Congress approved the Republican River Compact, which apportions the “virgin water supply” of the Basin among the three states (roughly 49% to Nebraska, 40% to Kansas, and 11% to Colorado). In 1998, Kansas sued Nebraska, claiming that Nebraska’s groundwater pumping was depleting stream flow in violation of the Compact. After the Court agreed with Kansas, the states negotiated the 2002 Final Settlement Stipulation, which established mechanisms to measure compliance, including accounting for groundwater pumping impacts. Despite these measures, Nebraska exceeded its allocation during the 2005-2006 accounting period by 70,869 acre-feet, causing $3.7 million in damages to Kansas. Nebraska claimed that the Accounting Procedures incorrectly charged it for using imported water from the Platte River Basin. The Special Master found that Nebraska “knowingly failed” to comply with the Compact but had not deliberately breached it, and that the Accounting Procedures did incorrectly charge Nebraska for imported water use.
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