Texas Border Business
Texas Border Business
May 29, 2026 – The U.S. Supreme Court has entered a final decree ending a long-running Rio Grande water dispute between Texas and New Mexico.
The case, Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado, No. 141, Original, also listed by the Court as docket No. 22O141, centered on water deliveries under the Rio Grande Compact of 1938. According to the Supreme Court docket, the Court entered the proposed final decree on May 26, 2026, after receiving the Special Master’s Fourth Interim Report.
The settlement is intended to reduce groundwater pumping in southern New Mexico and support more reliable Rio Grande water deliveries to Texas. It also creates a water accounting system for deliveries between New Mexico and Texas.
Texas filed the case in 2013, arguing that groundwater pumping in New Mexico reduced water owed to Texas under the compact. Colorado was also a party because the compact governs Rio Grande water among Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.
In 2024, the Supreme Court rejected an earlier proposed consent decree after the United States objected. The Court later appointed a new special master, Judge D. Brooks Smith, to continue proceedings.
The revised settlement was supported by New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, and the United States. Under the agreement, New Mexico must reduce annual groundwater depletions by 18,200 acre-feet within 10 years. Half of that reduction must be completed within five years.
The settlement also calls for retiring certain water rights tied to irrigated farmland in southern New Mexico. State officials have said the work may include the following programs: irrigation improvements, new water supplies, and better stormwater capture.
The Rio Grande begins in Colorado and flows through New Mexico and Texas before reaching Mexico. Farmers in southern New Mexico have relied more heavily on groundwater in recent decades as hotter, drier conditions have reduced river flows and reservoir storage.
The Supreme Court’s May 26 order entered the final decree and discharged Judge Smith as special master, ending the interstate case after more than a decade of litigation.
