Kansas v. Colorado (533 U.S. 1)/Opinion of the Court

1 The Arkansas River rises in the mountains of Colorado just east of the Continental Divide, descends for about 280 miles to the Kansas border, then flows through that State, Oklahoma, and Arkansas and empties into the Mississippi River. On May 20, 1901, Kansas first invoked this Court's original jurisdiction to seek a remedy for Colorado's diversion of water from the Arkansas River. See Kansas v. Colorado, 185 U.S. 125, 126 (1902) (statement of case). In opinions written during the past century, most recently in Kansas v. Colorado, 514 U.S. 673, 675-678 (1995), we have described the history and the importance of the river. For present purposes it suffices to note that two of those cases, Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U.S. 46 (1907), and Colorado v. Kansas, 320 U.S. 383 (1943), led to the negotiation of the Arkansas River Compact (Compact), an agreement between Kansas and Colorado that in turn was approved by Congress in 1949. See 63 Stat. 145. The case before us today involves a claim by Kansas for damages based on Colorado's violations of that Compact.

2 The Compact was designed to "[s]ettle existing disputes and remove causes of future controversy" between the two States and their citizens concerning waters of the Arkansas River and to "[e]quitably divide and apportion" those waters and the benefits arising from construction and operation of the federal project known as the "John Martin Reservoir." Arkansas River Compact, Art. I, reprinted in App. to Brief for Kansas A-1, A-2. Article IV-D of the Compact provides: