Wyoming State Water Plan
Wyoming State Water Plan
Wyoming Water Development Office
6920 Yellowtail Rd
Cheyenne, WY 82002
Phone: 307-777-7626
Wyoming Water Development Office
6920 Yellowtail Rd
Cheyenne, WY 82002
Phone: 307-777-7626
The Colorado River Compact is the foundation centerpiece of the Law of the River. A summary of the Compact is provided below, followed by a description of the events leading to its negotiation and its major provisions.
Summary of the Compact:
The Colorado River Compact divides the Colorado River into Upper and Lower Basins with the division being at Lee Ferry on the Colorado River (one mile below the Paria River in Arizona).
Article III of the Compact apportions the waters of the Colorado River to the Upper and Lower Basins as follows:
Background of the Compact:
The rapidly expanding use of Colorado River water in California was viewed with increasing alarm by officials in the Upper Basin States. As a consequence of their concern, the League of the Southwest was formed in 1919 to promote the orderly development and equitable division of the waters of the Colorado River. Congress approved the Kincaid Act in 1920 (41 Stat. 600) directing the Secretary of the Interior to make a full and comprehensive study and to report on the possible diversion and use of the waters of the Colorado River.
During the period when the Secretary.s studies were being conducted, negotiations were undertaken by the seven Basin States for an interstate agreement on the waters of the River. While it was recognized that storage on the Colorado River was essential not only for the flood protection and development for the lower basin, the Upper Basin States faced the possibility that water conserved by storage would be put to use in the Lower Basin more rapidly than the Upper Basin could use its share of the normal flow and thus form the basis for Lower Basin claims of appropriative rights to the water, thereby reestablishing the condition they sought to avoid.
In general, two methods were open for the protection of the upper basin: a Supreme Court suit predicated on the doctrine of equitable apportionment, as distinguished from the doctrine of priority of appropriation irrespective of State lines, or, in the alternative, an interstate compact cutting across the doctrine of appropriation and reserving water against its operation. Interstate compacts had been previously for the settlement of controversies involving boundaries, fisheries, criminal jurisdiction, etc., but had never been used for the allocation for waters of an interstate stream.
As a result of negotiations among the seven Basin States, it was agreed that an interstate compact would establish an equitable apportionment of the waters and protect the Upper Basin States. Each of the seven Basin States adopted the authorizing legislation in 1921 and Congress consented to the negotiations by legislation enacted on August 19, 1921 (42 Stat. 171). The Colorado River Commission convened in January 1922. Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, was elected Chairman. The Upper Basin.s fears and the wisdom of the decision to attempt an interstate agreement was demonstrated when the United States Supreme Court on June 5, 1922, in Wyoming v. Colorado , 259 U.S. 419, upheld the doctrine of priority of appropriations regardless of state lines.
After 27 meetings, a final agreement on the Compact was signed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on November 24, 1922. Although the States had hoped to allocate the Colorado River waters among each of the seven Basin States, such agreement was not possible.
Major Provisions:
The Colorado River Compact, an important, historic document, had the following major provisions:
Although the River had produced an average flow for the two decades preceding 1922 that would have accommodated 16 maf/yr in beneficial consumptive use annually from the waters of the Colorado River System for the two Basins, the Upper Basin (by virtue of Article III(d) of the Compact) assumed the burden of drier cycles occurring thereafter. Hence the Lower Basin has received a guaranteed 10-year (not annual) minimum flow of 75 maf at the Lee Ferry compact point. The Upper Basin became a guarantor in the sense that its depletions may not reduce the 10-year aggregate flow below the 75 maf at the Lee Ferry compact point.
The Compact was signed by each of the Seven Basin States. Six of the seven States ratified the Compact in 1923 but Arizona did not ratify it until 1944, 21 years later. In 1925, four ratifying States modified the requirement for seven State approval and ratified the Compact which was to become effective upon approval of at least six States and the consent of the United States. Utah and California took the required action in 1929. The United States approval of the Compact was contained in Section 13(a) of the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928.