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<br />21 <br /> <br />This statement means that New Mexico can only use project canals and other conduits <br /> <br /> <br />to satisfy a Winters right (a "preferential right") if the amount delivered does not <br /> <br /> <br />exceed the amount allocated to it and to Arizona under the 1948 Upper Colorado <br /> <br /> <br />River Basin Compact. Understanding this statement fully requires a digression on <br /> <br /> <br />what is traditionally called "the law of the Colorado River." <br /> <br />Two interstate compacts form the foundation of that law. The first is the Colorado <br /> <br />River Compact of 1922; the second, the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact of <br /> <br />1948.59 The 1922 Compact divides the basin into an upper and lower part (the point <br /> <br />of division is Lee's Ferry in northern Arizona) and allocates part of the river's waters <br />to each basin. The negotiators based the allocation on the belief that the average <br />annual flow of the river at Lee's Ferry was more than 16 million acre-feet and <br /> <br />allocated something less than half that, 7.5 million acre-feet, to each basin. The <br /> <br /> <br />apportionment took the form of a promise by the states above Lee's Ferry (Wyoming, <br /> <br /> <br />Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico) to deliver to the states below Lee's Ferry <br /> <br /> <br />(California, Arizona, and Nevada) 75 million acre-feet at Lee's Ferry averaged over <br /> <br /> <br />sliding ten-year periods. The upper basin was to get the balance.so <br /> <br />SSUJe language of the Colorado River Compact can be found at 70 Congo Rec. <br />324-325 (daily edition, Dec. 10, 1928). Congress consented to the Compact in Boulder <br />Canyon Project Act, 43 U.S.c. Sec. 617-618 at 617 (1) (1982). The language of the Upper <br />Colorado River Basin Compact can be found at 95 Congo Rec. 2758-2762 (daily edition. <br />Mar. 18, 1949). Congress consented to the Compact in 63 Stat. 31-43 (1949). For the <br />history of development of the law of the Colorado River, ~ Hundley, 'The West <br />Against Itself: The Colorado River--An Institutional History," in New Courses for the <br />Colorado River. ~ note 15 at 9-49. <br /> <br />soColorado River Compact, ~ note 59, Article IT (division at Lee's Ferry into <br />two basins); Article III(a) (allocation of 7.5 million acre-feet to each basin); and Article <br />III (d) (delivery by upper to lower basin, lo-year periods). In 1945, Congress ratified a <br />