The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to take up a water fight between Nebraska and Colorado.
In a filing with the high court Wednesday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the states’ brawl over the South Platte River is precisely the type of interstate dispute that should get “distinct disposition” by the justices.
“A claim that one State has deprived another of water to which it is entitled under an interstate compact is a quintessential case for this Court’s original jurisdiction,” Sauer wrote. “And because Nebraska’s challenge is purely factual, that claim is best addressed by a special master in the first instance.”
The litigation comes as climate change is shriveling Western rivers, and states are scrambling to shore up supplies for their farms, cities, tribes and industries. Colorado — a headwaters state for four major Western rivers, including the drought-riddled Colorado River — estimates that 70 percent of its population lives within the South Platte River Basin.
