Blog: U.S. Supreme Court broadens equitable apportionment doctrine to include groundwater
The United States Supreme Court unanimously decided its first interstate groundwater case, finding that Mississippi must rely on the doctrine of equitable apportionment to invoke the Court’s original jurisdiction for relief related to allegations of excessive pumping of groundwater by Tennessee. … The Court has previously applied the doctrine of equitable apportionment to interstate rivers and streams, interstate river basins, and even where the pumping of groundwater has affected the flow of interstate surface waters—but never before addressed whether equitable apportionment applies to interstate aquifers.