Yellowstone River Compact

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The Yellowstone River Compact is an interstate compact that was entered into by Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming and ratified in 1950 for the purpose of providing for an equitable division and apportionment of the waters of the Yellowstone River and its tributaries, encouraging mutually beneficial development and use of the Yellowstone River Basin's waters, and furthering intergovernment cooperation between the three states. The Compact became effective in 1951 and provided for the creation of the Yellowstone River Compact Commission to administer the provisions of the Compact as between the states of Montana and Wyoming. [1] [2]

In the United States of America, an interstate compact is an agreement between two or more states. Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution provides that "No State shall, without the Consent of Congress... enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State." Consent can be obtained in one of three ways. First, there can be a model compact and Congress can grant automatic approval for any state wishing to join it, such as the Driver License Compact. Second, states can submit a compact to Congress prior to entering into the compact. Third, states can agree to a compact then submit it to Congress for approval, which, if it does so, causes it to come into effect. Not all compacts between states require explicit Congressional approval – the Supreme Court ruled in Virginia v. Tennessee that only those agreements which would increase the power of states at the expense of the federal government required it.

Montana State of the United States of America

Montana is a landlocked state in the Northwestern United States. Montana has several nicknames, although none are official, including "Big Sky Country" and "The Treasure State", and slogans that include "Land of the Shining Mountains" and more recently "The Last Best Place".

North Dakota State of the United States of America

North Dakota is a U.S. state in the midwestern and northern regions of the United States. It is the nineteenth largest in area, the fourth smallest by population, and the fourth most sparsely populated of the 50 states. North Dakota was admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889, along with its neighboring state, South Dakota. Its capital is Bismarck, and its largest city is Fargo.

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Montana v. Wyoming

In 2007, Montana motioned the Supreme Court of the United States for leave of Court to file a bill of complaint against Wyoming and North Dakota, claiming that Wyoming had violated the Yellowstone River Compact by permitting the citizens of Wyoming to employ more efficient irrigation systems, causing Montana to receive less run off water than the state had originally received.

Supreme Court of the United States Highest court in the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. Established pursuant to Article III of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, it has original jurisdiction over a small range of cases, such as suits between two or more states, and those involving ambassadors. It also has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all federal court and state court cases that involve a point of federal constitutional or statutory law. The Court has the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution or an executive act for being unlawful. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction. The Court may decide cases having political overtones, but it has ruled that it does not have power to decide nonjusticiable political questions. Each year it agrees to hear about 100–150 of the more than 7,000 cases that it is asked to review.

Irrigation artificial application of water to the land or soil

Irrigation is the application of controlled amounts of water to plants at needed intervals. Irrigation helps to grow agricultural crops, maintain landscapes, and revegetate disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of less than average rainfall. Irrigation also has other uses in crop production, including frost protection, suppressing weed growth in grain fields and preventing soil consolidation. In contrast, agriculture that relies only on direct rainfall is referred to as rain-fed or dry land farming.

Surface runoff The flow of excess stormwater, meltwater, or water from other sources over the Earths surface

Surface runoff is the flow of water that occurs when excess stormwater, meltwater, or other sources flows over the Earth's surface. This might occur because soil is saturated to full capacity, because rain arrives more quickly than soil can absorb it, or because impervious areas send their runoff to surrounding soil that cannot absorb all of it. Surface runoff is a major component of the water cycle. It is the primary agent in soil erosion by water.

When the Compact was agreed to, irrigation was accomplished mostly by flooding crop fields. Around 65% of the water would be absorbed into the soil or evaporate, leaving 35% of the water to flow back into the source rivers and downstream. With more efficient irrigation systems such as sprinkling, 10% or less of the water flows downstream, effectively allowing Wyoming to utilize more water. [3] The Supreme Court granted the motion for leave of Court and appointed Stanford University natural resources law professor Bradford H. Thompson, Jr. as Special Master to try the case and recommend a decision to the Court. [4] Special Master Thompson concluded that because the Compact did not specify a fixed volume of water from the Yellowstone River or its tributaries that would be available to Montana, Wyoming's use of more efficient irrigation methods did not violate the Compact. [3] In the opinion for Montana v. Wyoming filed May 2, 2011, the Supreme Court agreed, holding that Montana had failed to state a claim for breach of the Compact, and that Wyoming's more efficient irrigation systems do not violate the Compact. [5]

Stanford University private research university located in Stanford, California, United States

Leland Stanford Junior University is an American private research university in Stanford, California. Stanford is known for its academic strength, wealth, proximity to Silicon Valley, and ranking as one of the world's top universities.

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References

  1. ↑ "Yellowstone River Compact Commission Home Page" . Retrieved 2013-05-12.
  2. ↑ "YELLOWSTONE RIVER COMPACT, 1950" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-05-12.
  3. 1 2 Denniston, Lyle (2010-10-13). "Montana water case — explained". SCOTUSblog. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
  4. ↑ "Search - Supreme Court of the United States". Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
  5. ↑ "Montana v. Wyoming and North Dakota". SCOTUSblog. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
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