Cite as: 531 U. S. 425 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
Stat. 535, as amended, 33 U. S. C. § 702c. At issue in this case is the meaning of the words "floods or flood waters." The narrow question presented is whether those words encompass all the water that flows through a federal facility that was designed and is operated, at least in part, for flood control purposes. The Ninth Circuit, relying upon a broader construction of § 702c than some other federal courts have adopted, concluded that they do. We granted certiorari to resolve the conflict, 529 U. S. 1017 (2000), and now reverse.
I
Petitioner owns 1,000 acres of pistachio orchards in California's San Joaquin Valley. The Madera Canal, a federal facility that has been leased to the Madera Irrigation District (MID), flows through petitioner's property. In 1996, petitioner brought this action against respondent United States and the MID alleging that their negligence in the design, construction, and maintenance of the canal had caused subsurface flooding resulting in damage to the orchards and increased operating costs for petitioner. Petitioner did not allege that any physical failure of the dam caused the damage to its property. The complaint sought damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U. S. C. § 2671 et seq., as well as injunctive relief. Relying on the immunity granted by the Flood Control Act of 1928, 33 U. S. C. § 702c, the United States moved for judgment on the pleadings.
Accepting petitioner's submission that the Madera Canal was used for irrigation purposes, the District Court nevertheless dismissed the complaint because the parties agreed that the canal was a part of the Friant Division of the Central Valley Project, and that flood control was one of the purposes of that project. The District Court's decision was dictated by an earlier Ninth Circuit case, which held that if a " 'project has flood control as one of its purposes, and the
427
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