WSP08505

• File Number: 8103.400
• Description: Arkansas River Compact Administration - Article VIII Investigations
• Basin: Arkansas
• Date: 4/6/1949
• Author: Hans Kramer
• Title: Report to Congress of the United States on Proposed Arkansas River Compact
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

drained by the Arkansas River and its tributaries west of the

Colorado-Kansas stateline. A general map of the locality is appended

to this report.

Lands presently under irrigation in the Arkansas River

basin cover approximately 325,000 acres in southeastern Colorado

and approximately 65,000 acres in western Kansas. Their annual

crop production is currently valued at about ~l2,500,000 and

$3,000,000 respectively,

Natural streamflow in the headwaters of the Arkansas

River is augmented by water imported through transmountain diversions

across the Continental Divide from the Colorado River system. These

importations, which have been in operation since before 1908 and have

been averaging approximately 43,000 acre-feet in recent years, have

been developed by private water users. The upstream usage of these

imported waters is such that they do not contribute measurably to

the waters of the Arkansas River, averaging around 300,000 acre-feet

annually, to be governed by the proposed compact. Therefore, the

apportionment proposed under the compact does not concern itself with

these importations and deals only vdth native Arkansas River water,

i. e., water which has its, source vdthin the Arkansas River watershed

as distinguished from foreign water, i. e., ~ater which has its source

in and is imported by diversion from a watershed other than the

Arkansas, viz., the Colorado River system.

Colorado's importations of water from the Colorado to the

Arkansas River system may be increased materially above historic

...7...