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<br />22 <br /> <br />In 1948 the upper basin states apportioned their share of the Colorado by <br /> <br /> <br />percentages. Colorado was entitled to 51.75 percent of the upper basin's share of <br /> <br />Colorado water in any given year, Utah, 23 percent, Wyoming, 14 percent, and New <br /> <br />Mexico, 11.25 percent. In addition, Arizona, a small portion of wbich is located in the <br />upper basin, received 50,000 acre-feet a year.51 <br /> <br />As it happens, the estimate of average annual flow of the Colorado on which the <br />1922 Compact was based--over 16 million acre-feet--was high. In fact, the flow appears <br />from analysis of several centuries of tree rings to be closer to 13.5 million acre-feet a <br />year.52 Because the 1922 Compact promises 7.5 million acre-feet per year to the lower <br />basin, with the upper basin taking the remainder, a lower annual flow means that <br /> <br />;~ <br />:<<. <br />'" <br />'-.'1 <br />~/i <br />;.f~ <br /> <br />upper basin supplies are considerably smaller than expected under the 1922 <br />Compact.53 <br /> <br /> <br />treaty between the United States and Mexico negotiated the year before that allocated <br />1.5 million acre-feet of the Colorado annually to Mexico. Treaty between tbe United <br />States and Mexico, Relating to Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the <br />Rio Grande, Feb. 3, 1944, United States and Mexico. See al~ N. Hundley, Dividing the <br />Waters: A Century of Conflict Between the United States and Mexico (1966). After the <br />Mexico Treaty, under which the two basins share equally under Article III(c) of the 1922 <br />Compact, supra. note 59, the upper basin's "balance" was reduced by 1.5 million acre- <br />feet annually. . <br /> <br />51 Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, ~ note 59, Art. III(a)(I) and (2). <br /> <br />52& C. Stockton and G. Jacoby, "Long-Term Surface-Water Supply and Streamflow <br />Trends in the Upper Colorado River Basin," 18 Lake Powell Research Proiect Bulletin <br />(1976). <br /> <br />(.~:_, <br />, . <br /> <br />~: <br />;;?: <br />i~ <br />~ <br /> <br />53For an example of the extent to which the lower flow at Lee's Ferry than <br />estimated in 1922 diminishes upper basin state entitlements, consider the case of New <br />Mexico. In 1958, New Mexico State Engineer Reynolds estimated that New Mexico's <br />