682
Opinion of the Court
Administration approved the Operating Principles as well as Kansas' five additional conditions. Id., at 395.
In 1979, Colorado began storage of water at the Trinidad Reservoir. Id., at 396. Kansas immediately complained that the Operating Principles were being violated. Id., at 397. In 1988, at the request of the Administration, the Bureau of Reclamation conducted a study of the Trinidad Reservoir. It concluded that two storage practices at the Trinidad Reservoir constituted a " 'departure from the intent of the operating principles.' " Ibid.
At trial, Kansas argued that the Operating Principles were binding on the State of Colorado and that any departure from them constituted a violation of the Compact "regardless of injury." Id., at 408 (internal quotation marks omitted). Kansas, however, "offered no evidence, apart from the Bureau studies, to show that the actual operation of the Trinidad project caused it to receive less water than under historical, without-project conditions." Id., at 412. Instead, Kansas sought to quantify depletions by "comparing the flows into John Martin Reservoir 'as they would have occurred under the Operating Principles with the flows that occurred under actual operations.' " Id., at 409. The Special Master concluded that in order to prove a violation of the Compact, Kansas was required to demonstrate that "the Trinidad operations caused a material depletion within the meaning of Article IV-D." Id., at 431. The Special Master recommends that we dismiss Kansas' Trinidad claim because "Kansas has not established, and did not attempt to establish, such injury." Ibid.
Kansas argues that "[d]eparture from the Operating Principles is ipso facto a violation of the Compact, and it [is] entirely sufficient, for purposes of quantifying the effects of the violation, to compare the actual operation with simulated operation as it should have been under the Operating Principles." Kansas' Exceptions to Special Master's Report 12. But, it must be recalled, this is an original action to enforce
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