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Introduction
"The Law of the River" as applied to the Colorado River, has evolved out of a combination
of both Federal and State statutes, inter-State compacts, court decisions and decrees,
contracts with the United States, an international treaty, operating criteria and administrative
decisions. All of the foregoing have resulted in a division or apportionment of the waters
of the Colorado River among users and of the rights to the "consumptive use" of the Colorado
River waters. They reflect the fact that for over a hundred years, the financial strength and
national authority of the U.S. Congress has been absolutely necessary to avoid interstate
disputes and to secure economic stability for the Colorado River basin. Floods in the lower
Colorado River in the first years of this century caused extensive damage and created the
Salton Sea, bringing urgency to the desires of California irrigators for an all-American canal
and a dam that would regulate the river. The California interests sought financial support
for these projects from Congress. The upper basin States were wary that the lower basin
would develop at the expense of the upper basin, and successfully blocked these efforts in
Congress. The upper and lower basins resolved their differences in 1922 when they signed the
Colorado River Basin Compact. The Compact divides the river's water between the basins and
also sets a requirement that the upper basin not deplete the flow of the river below 75 million
acre feet over any 10-year period.
The Colorado River has been described as the most closely regulated and controlled stream in
the United States. Between 1962 and 1979, water has been released from Hoover Dam in quantities
sufficient to meet only the requirements for delivery to Mexico under the Mexican Water Treaty
and the downstream requirements under water delivery contracts with the Secretary of the Interior.
The released water generates power but water is not released for the sole purpose of generating
power. Consequently, there are only minimal flows in the Colorado River below Morelos Dam, the
last dam on the river which was built by Mexico to divert water for use in Mexico
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