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COLORADO RIVER COMPACT
The States of Arizona, California, Colorado, -Nevada, New Mexico Utah,
and Wyoming, having resolved to enter into a compact under the Act of
the Congress of the United States of America approved August 19, 1921
(42 Statutes at Large, page 171), and the Acts of the Legislatures of
the said States, have through their Governors appointed as their Commissioners:
W. S. Norviel, for the State of Arizona
W.F McClure, for the State of California
Delph E. Carpenter, for the State of Colorado
J. G. Scrugham for the State of Nevada
Stephen B. Davis, Jr., for the State of New Mexico
R. E. Caldwell, for the State of Utah
Frank C. Emerson, for the State of Wyoming
who, after negotiations participated in by Herbert Hoover appointed by
The President as he representative of the United States of America, have
agreed upon the following articles:
-ARTICLE- I
The major purposes of this compact are to provide for the equitable
division and apportionment of the use of the waters of the Colorado River
System; to establish the relative importance of different beneficial uses
of water; to promote interstate comity; to remove causes of present and
future controversies; and to secure the expeditious agricultural and industrial
development of the Colorado River Basin, the storage of its waters, and
the protection of life and property from floods. To these ends the Colorado
River Basin is divided into two Basins, and an apportionment of the use
of part of the water of the Colorado River System is made to each of them
with the provision that further equitable apportionments may be made.
ARTICLE- II
As used in this compact-
(a) The term "Colorado River System" means that portion of
the Colorado River and its tributaries within the United States of America.
(b) The term "Colorado River Basin" means all of the drainage
area of the Colorado River System and all other territory within the.
United States of America to which the waters of the Colorado River System
shall be beneficially applied.
(c) The term "States of the Upper Division" means the States
of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
(d) The term "States of the Lower Division" means the States
of Arizona, California, and Nevada.
(e) The term "Lee Ferry" means a point in the main stream of
the Colorado River one mile below the mouth of the Paria River.
(f) The term "Upper Basin" means those parts of the States
of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming within and from which
waters naturally drain into the Colorado River System above Lee Ferry,
and also all parts of said States located without the drainage area of
the Colorado River System which are now or shall hereafter be beneficially
served by waters diverted from the System above Lee Ferry.
(g) The term "Lower Basin" means those parts of the States
of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah within and from which
waters naturally drain into the Colorado River System below Lee Ferry,
and also all parts of said States located without the drainage area of
the Colorado River System which are now or shall hereafter be beneficially
served by waters diverted from the System below Lee Ferry.
(h) The term "domestic use" shall include the use of water
for household, stock, municipal, mining, milling, industrial, and other
like purposes, but shall exclude the generation of electrical power.
ARTICLE III
(a) There is hereby apportioned from the Colorado River System in perpetuity
to the Upper Basin and to the Lower Basin, respectively, the exclusive
beneficial consumptive use of 7,500,000 ac!-e-feet of water per annum,
which shall include all water necessary for the supply of any rights which
may now exist.
(b) In addition to the apportionment in paragraph (a), the Lower Basin
is hereby given the right to increase its beneficial consumptive use of
such waters by one million acre-feet per annum.
(c) If, as a matter of international comity, the United States of America
shall hereafter recognize in the United States of Mexico any right to
the use of any waters of the Colorado River System, such waters shall
be supplied first from the waters which are surplus over and above the
aggregate of the quantities specified in paragraphs (a) and (b); and if
such surplus shall prove insufficient for this purposes then, the burden
of such deficiency shall be equally borne by the Upper Basin and the Lower
Basin, and whenever necessary the States of the Upper Division shall deliver
at Lee Ferry water to supply one-half of the deficiency so recognized
in addition to that provided in paragraph (d).
(d) The States of the Upper Division will not cause the flow of the river
at Lee Ferry to be depleted below an aggregate of 75,000,000 acre-feet
for any period of ten consecutive years reckoned in continuing progressive
series beginning with the first day of October next succeeding the ratification
of this compact.
(e) The States of the Upper Division shall not withhold water, and the
States of the Lower Division shall not require the delivery of water.
which cannot reasonably be applied to domestic and agricultural uses.
(f) Further equitable apportionment of the beneficial uses of the waters
of the Colorado River System unapportioned by paragraphs (a), (b), and
(c) may be made in the manner provided in paragraph (g) at any time after
October first, 1963, if and when either Basin shall have reached its total
beneficial consumptive use as set out in paragraphs (a) and (b).
(g) In the event of a desire for a further apportionment as provided
in paragraph (f) any two signatory States, acting through their Governors,
may give joint notice of such desire to the Governors of the other signatory
States and to The President of the United States of America, and it shall
be the duty of the Governors of the signatory States and of The President
of the United States of America forthwith to appoint representatives,
whose duty it shall be to divide and apportion equitably between the Upper
Basin and Lower Basin the beneficial use of the unapportioned water of
the Colorado River System as mentioned in paragraph (f), subject to the
legislative ratification of the signatory States and the Congress of the
United States of America.
ARTICLE IV
(a) Inasmuch as the Colorado River has ceased to be navigable for commerce
and the reservation of its waters for navigation would seriously limit
the development of its Basin, the use of its waters for purposes of navigation
shall be subservient to the uses of such waters for domestic, agricultural,
and power purposes. If the Congress shall not consent to this paragraph,
the other provisions of this compact shall nevertheless remain binding.
(b) Subject to the provisions of this compact, water of the Colorado
river System may be impounded and used for the generation of elected power,
but such impounding and use -hall be subservient to the use and consumption
of such water for agricultural and domestic purposes and shall not interfere
with or prevent use for such dominant purposes.
(c) The provisions of this article shall not apply to or interfere with
the regulation and control by any State within its boundaries of the appropriation,
use, and distribution of water.
ARTICLE V
The chief official of each signatory State charged with the administration
of water rights, together with the Director of the United States Reclamation
Service and the Director of the United States Geological Survey shall
cooperate, ex-officio:
(a) To promote the systematic determination and coordination of the facts
as to flow, appropriation, consumption, and use of water in the Colorado
River Basin, and the interchange of available information in such matters.
(b) To secure the asertainment and publication of the annual flow of
the Colorado River at Lee Ferry.
(c) To perform such other duties as may be assigned by mutual consent
of the signatories from time to time.
ARTICLE VI
Should any claim or controversy arise between any two or more of the
signatory States: (a) with respect to the waters of the Colorado River
System not covered by the terms of this compact; (b) over the meaning
or performance of any of the terms of this compact; (c) as to the allocation
of the burdens incident to the performance of any article of this compact
or the delivery of waters as herein provided; (d) as to the construction
or operation of works within the Colorado River Basin to be situated in
two or more States, or to be constructed in one State for the benefit
of another State; or (e) as to the diversion of water in one State for
the benefit of another State; the Governors of the States affected, upon
the request of one of them, shall forthwith appoint Commissioners with
power to consider and adjust such claim or controversy, subject to ratification
by the Legislatures of the States so affected.
Nothing herein contained shall prevent the adjustment of any such claim
or controversy by any present method or by direct future legislative action
of the interested States.
ARTICLE VII
Nothing in this compact shall be construed as affecting the obligations
of the United States of America to Indian tribes.
ARTICLE VIII
Present perfected rights to the beneficial use of waters of the Colorado
River System are unimpaired by this compact. Whenever storage capacity
of 5,000,000 acre-feet shall have been provided on the main Colorado River
within or for the benefit of the Lower Basin, then claims of such rights,
if any, by appropriators or users of water in the Lower Basin against
appropriators or users of water in the Upper Basin shall attach to and
be satisfied from water that may be stored not in conflict with Article
III. All other rights to beneficial use of waters of the Colorado River
System shall be satisfied solely from the water apportioned to that Basin
in which they are situate.
ARTICLE IX
Nothing in this compact shall be construed to limit or prevent any State
from instituting or maintaining any action or proceeding, legal or equitable,
for the protection of any right under this compact or the enforcement
of any of its provisions.
ARTICLE X
This compact may be terminated at any time by the unanimous agreement
of the signatory States. In the event of such termination all rights established
under it shall continue unimpaired.
ARTICLE XI
This compact shall become binding and obligatory when it shall have been
approved by the Legislatures of each of the signatory States and by the
Congress of the United States. Notice of approval by the Legislatures
shall be given by the Governor of each signatory State to the Governors
of the other signatory States and to the President of the United States,
and the President of the United States is requested to give notice to
the Governors of the signatory States of approval by the Congress of the
United States.
In, WITNESS WHEREOF, the Commissioners have signed this compact in a
single original, which shall be deposited in the archives of the Department
of State of the United States of America and of which a duly certified
copy shall be forwarded to the Governor of each of the signatory States.
DONE at the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, this twenty-fourth day of November,
A. D. One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-two.
(Signed) W. S. NORVIEL.
(Signed) W. F. MCCLURE.
(Signed) DELPH E. CARPENTER.
(Signed) J. G. SCRUGHAM.
(Signed) STEPHEN B. DAVIS, Jr.
(Signed) R. E. CALDWELL.
(Signed) FRANK C. EMERSON.
Approved:
(Signed) HERBERT HOOVER.
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