What the Supreme Court Rio Grande Settlement Means for New Mexico and Texas

After 13 years of legal disputes, Texas and New Mexico have settled their fight over the Rio Grande’s water in the U.S. Supreme Court, Inside Climate News reports. Although the lawsuit is over, the settlement begins a long, complicated process of managing the West’s shrinking water supply.

In 2013, Texas sued New Mexico, claiming New Mexico farmers were pumping too much groundwater and reducing the river’s flow before it reached Texas, in violation of the 1938 Rio Grande Compact. Under the settlement, New Mexico must cut groundwater pumping between Caballo Reservoir and the Texas border by about 18,200 acre-feet a year over the next 10 years. For the first time, water flow at the state line will also be officially measured.

State officials estimate that starting the program will cost at least $150 million, money the state has set aside. The state’s first plan is a voluntary buyback program: New Mexico will buy groundwater rights from farmers who agree to sell, then shut down those wells and take the farmland out of use. Chile producers worry that widespread fallowing will hurt farm economies, and Mesilla Valley pecan growers face a tough problem because mature trees need a lot of water every year.

Higher temperatures have reduced the snowpack that feeds the Rio Grande and worsened a 24-year drought, and state projections show the regional water supply could fall by 25% over the next 50 years.

Editor’s note: Updated Oct. 31, 2026. This story is now part of Daily Reports, our New Mexico news roundup, and was revised to credit Inside Climate News’s original reporting. Learn how Daily Reports works in our editorial standards.