Opinion ID: 613271
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: Tarrant Regional Water District (Tarrant), a Texas state agency, applied to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (the OWRB) for permits to appropriate water at three locations in Oklahoma for use in Texas. Just before filing its applications, Tarrant sued the nine members of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (collectively OWRB) in the district court for the Western District of Oklahoma and sought a declaratory judgment to invalidate certain Oklahoma statutes that govern the appropriation and use of water and an injunction preventing OWRB from enforcing them. [1] Tarrant alleged that the Oklahoma statutes restrict interstate commerce in water and thereby violate the dormant Commerce Clause as discriminatory or unduly burdensome. Tarrant further alleged that Congress did not authorize Oklahoma through the Red River Compact (Compact) to enact such laws. OWRB responded that Congress did authorize Oklahoma to adopt these statutes by consenting to the Compact. Tarrant also claimed that the Compact preempts the Oklahoma statutes insofar as the Compact applies to Tarrant's application to appropriate water located in Reach II, Subbasin 5 of the Red River Basin. The district court granted summary judgment for OWRB on both the dormant Commerce Clause and Supremacy Clause claims. Tarrant Reg'l Water Dist. v. Herrmann, No. CIV-07-0045-HE, 2009 WL 3922803 (W.D.Okla. Nov. 18, 2009) (unpublished) ( Tarrant I. ) After that decision, Tarrant took steps to export to Texas Oklahoma water that is not subject to the Compact. Tarrant negotiated a contract with property owners in Stephens County, Oklahoma to export groundwater to Texas and also entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Apache Tribe concerning the Tribe's potential water rights. Then in the district court Tarrant reasserted its dormant Commerce Clause challenge based on these transactions. The district court dismissed the Stephens County matter for lack of standing and the Apache Tribe matter as not ripe. Tarrant Reg'l Water Dist. v. Herrmann, No. CIV-07-0045-HE, 2010 WL 2817220 (W.D.Okla. July 16, 2010) (unpublished) ( Tarrant II. ) This appeal raises three issues. First, did Congress authorize the Compact states to protect their apportionments of water through measures that otherwise might violate the dormant Commerce Clause? Second, did the Compact preempt certain Oklahoma statutes insofar as they interfere with Tarrant's appropriating water located in the Oklahoma part of Reach II, Subbasin 5 and exporting it to Texas? Third, did Tarrant have a justiciable dormant Commerce Clause challenge to the application of certain Oklahoma statutes to water not subject to the Compact based on the Stephens County and Apache Tribe arrangements? Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we AFFIRM the grants of summary judgment on the dormant Commerce Clause and preemption issues. We AFFIRM the dismissals based on standing and ripeness.