686
Opinion of the Court
Later, well after trial had begun, Kansas enlisted the aid of Brent Spronk, who proposed yet another method to quantify depletions of "usable" stateline flow. Id., at 300-305. Spronk attempted to determine the "percentage of days in each month when flows were being fully used in Kansas." Id., at 301. Instead of seasonal averages, the Spronk approach yielded coefficients that varied from month to month. Spronk then multiplied these monthly coefficients by the estimated depletions in flow predicted by Kansas' hydrological model. Id., at 301-302.
The Special Master concluded that "the Durbin approach, using Larson's coefficients, is the best of the several methods presented for determining usable flow" and that it provided "a reasonable way in which to determine depletions of usable flow." Id., at 305. We agree. Each of the three methods that Kansas proposed for calculating usable depletions required two steps: (1) a calculation of total depletions using the Kansas hydrological model, and (2) an application of "usability" criteria. See Brief for United States in Response to Exeptions of Kansas and Colorado 30. Each of the three methods proposed by Kansas was dependent on the Kansas hydrological model to estimate total depletions. The Spronk method required the Kansas hydrological model to predict accurately depletions for each and every month. Report 303. But as Durbin, Kansas' first expert, testified, Kansas' hydrological model was only a " 'good predictor' when 'looking at long periods of time.' " Id., at 303, n. 130 (quoting Durbin's testimony). Thus, the Spronk method required the Kansas hydrological model to do something it was not designed to do, i. e., predict accurately depletions on a monthly basis. Id., at 303 ("The Spronk analysis assumes that the H-I model can accurately predict changes of State-line flow on a monthly basis"). Because the Spronk method for determining "usable" river flows was less compatible with Kansas' hydrological model than the other methods proposed, we conclude that the Special Master properly rejected
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