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<br />." <br /> <br />.'. <br /> <br />westwide Studv Report on critical Water Problems Facinq <br />the Eleven Western states 154 (1975). The objective of <br />this presentation is to discuss three areas of law which <br />affect the usable water supply of the Colorado River: <br />the Mexican Treaty of 1944, salinity control measures, <br />and the Federal Endangered species Act of 1973; and to <br />explore why the Colorado River Basin is a breeding ground <br />for controversy. <br />A. The Law of the River <br />The waters of the Colorado River have been <br />divided among the Upper Basin, the Lower Basin, the <br />Republic of Mexico, and among the states of the Upper and <br />Lower Basins by a set of compacts, treaties, statutes, <br />and judicial decisions, collectively referred to as "the <br />law of the river. II What follows is a sUllllllary of the <br />principal components of the law of the river. <br />1. The Colorado River CODlPact of 1922 <br />The Colorado River Compact of 1922 ("1922 <br />Compact") divides the entire Colorado River system, which <br />by definition includes all tributaries of the Colorado <br />River, into an Upper and a Lower Basin. The boundary <br />between the two is at Lee's Ferry, Arizona, which was <br />considered by the compact commissioners to be the natural <br />dividing point between the tributaries of the Upper and <br /> <br />-2- <br />