Laserfiche WebLink
<br />.-I <br />.... <br />t-o, <br />~J <br />C <br /> <br />Article IV <br /> <br />(b) Subject to the provisions of this compact, water of <br />the Colorado River System may be impounded and used for the <br />generation of electric power, but such impounding and use shall <br />be subservient to the use and consumption of such water for <br />agricultural and domestic purposes and shall not interfere <br />with or prevent use for such dominant purposes. <br /> <br />. . . .. .. .. .. <br /> <br />Article VII <br /> <br />Nothing in this compact shall be construed as affecting <br />the obligations of the United States of America to Indian <br />tribes. <br /> <br />.. .. .. .. .. .. <br /> <br />Article )C[ <br /> <br />This compact shall become binding and obligatory when it <br />shall have been approved by the Legislatures of each of the <br />signatory States and by the Congress of the United States. . . . <br /> <br />B. Historical background <br /> <br />During the period 1905-1907, there occurred a series of <br />disastrous floods in the lower basin of the Colorado River. <br />A considerable portion of the Imperial Valley was inundated <br />and the Salton Sea was created. Nature made it quite obvious <br />that settlement along the lower reaches of the Colorado River <br />was fraught with uncertainty. In the years following these <br />floods, plans for controlling the Colorado River gathered <br />momentum in the lower basin, spearheaded by private and public <br />organizations of the State of California. <br /> <br />The residents of the upper reaches of the Colorado River <br />had no consuming interest in the problems of the lower basin. <br />Colorado and Wyoming were busily engaged in disputing each <br />other's rights to the waters of the North Platte River, a <br />tributary of the Missouri River. The resulting decision of <br />the United States Supreme Court in the case of Wyoming vs. <br />Colorado established the legal principle that the doctrine of <br />prior appropriation controls regardless of state boundaries. <br />When the full import of this decision began to sink in, the <br />other states of the Colorado River Basin realized that the <br />already rapidly growing State of California was presented with <br />an opportunity to grab off the lion's share of the flow of the <br />Colorado River. <br /> <br />-3- <br />