692
Opinion of the Court
Plan divides the water conserved in John Martin Reservoir into separate accounts. Kansas is allocated 40% of the conservation storage, with the remaining 60% being divided in specified percentages among the nine canal companies in Colorado Water District 67. Id., at 173. The Special Master concluded that the 1980 Operating Plan for the John Martin Reservoir was "separately bargained for" and therefore should not offset depletions caused by post-Compact well pumping in Colorado. Id., at 180-181. Colorado takes exception to this ruling.
Colorado argues that increases in usable stateline flows resulting from the 1980 Operating Plan should offset depletions to usable stateline flows. Colorado's Exceptions 85. Colorado maintains that the Administration adopted the 1980 Operating Plan "for more efficient utilization of water under its control because of changes in the regime of the Arkansas River," id., at 91, "including [post-Compact] well pumping in Colorado and Kansas," ibid.; see also App. to Report 107 (Resolution Concerning an Operating Plan for John Martin Reservoir) ("WHEREAS, the Arkansas River Compact Administration . . . recognizes that, because of changes in the regime of the Arkansas River, the present operation of the conservation features of John Martin Reservoir does not result in the most efficient utilization possible of the water under its control"). We disagree.
As Colorado acknowledges, the resolution adopting the 1980 Operating Plan "does not state that [post-Compact] well pumping in Colorado or Kansas was a cause of changes in the regime of the Arkansas River." Colorado's Exceptions 88. In fact, Colorado argues in a separate part of its brief that "Kansas had made no complaint about well pumping in Colorado to the Compact Administration . . . before 1984." Id., at 32. The 1980 Operating Plan expressly reserves the parties' rights under the Compact, stating that "[a]doption of this resolution does not prejudice the ability of Kansas or of any Colorado ditch to object or to otherwise represent its
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