WSP09653

• File Number: 8443
• Description: Narrows Unit
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 3/28/1977
• Title: Statements related to the Narrows Unit
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

cc-: .~,
of '~ee+. We strongly believe that we should have a major voice in
determining the use of our limited water resources. Just as strongly,
we reject the idea that those wholly unfamiliar with our circumstances
should make decisions for us.

Those not familiar with the Colorado situation tend to view the
four Colorado River projects as having been individually conceived and
wholly unrelated. This is not the case. In 1921 as a result of
continuing controversy over the waters of the Colorado and a series of
destructive floods in the lower reaches of the river, the seven states
of the Colorado River Basin entered into negotiations to effect an
equitable division of the waters of the Colorado River among those
states. The completed Colorado River Compact was signed by the respec-
tive commissioners of each of the seven Colorado River Basin states and
by Herbert Hoover as a representative of the United States on Nov-
ember 24, 1922. That compact made possible the subsequent construction
of Hoover Dam in Nevada for the benefit of the Lower Division states.

Subsequently, the four Upper Division states agreed upon a division
of their allocated waters pursuant to the Upper Colorado River Basin
Compact executed in 1948. The United States was also a party to that
compact. Although the state of Colorado produces about seventy percent
of the total Colorado River flow, it was allocated only about thirty-
five percent of its own waters. Even this small allocation was further
clouded by the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944. It is the position of
the Department of Interior today that, by virtue of the actual historic
flow of the river, the state of Colorado will be entitled to only about
twenty-seven percent of the total river flow. We dispute this figure,
but it is nevertheless being used.

The Colorado River in Colorado produces about seventy percent of
the total surface flows of our state. It is therefore our major
source of water. Yet we have seen that major source shrink to a
minuscule proportion through the execution of an international treaty
and two interstate compacts. This may help explain our desperate and
last ditch fight to save what little water remains to us. It was
recognized during the negotiation of the two interstate compacts
referred to that the provisions of those compacts could never be met
unless major storage facilities were built on the Colorado River above
Lee Ferry. At the same time, it also was recognized that the states of
the Upper Basin could not develop their allocated waters without some
financial assistance. These two factors resulted in the passage of
the Colorado River Storage Project Act of 1956.

The genesis for four of the Colorado water resource projects now
under attack was the Colorado River Storage Project Act of 1956. By
that act, the Dallas Creek, Dolores, Fruitland Mesa and Savery-Pot
Hook reclamation projects were designated as potential participating
rec1awation projects, subject to a finding of feasibility and specific
authorization by the Congress. Forty-six percent of the power reve-
nues derived from the Colorado River Storage Project were specifically
and exclusively dedicated to Colorado to assist in the repayment of
those project features attributable to irrigation. OVer twenty years
of extensive studies and restudies, evaluations and re-eva1uations,
and hearings and rehearings have taken place concerning these four
projects. They have been authorized by the Congress, approved by past
Presidents, and monies have been appropriated for their construction.

-3-