WSP10734

• File Number: 8200.900
• Description: California Colorado River Issues
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 1/30/1989
• Author: Warren J. Abbott
• Title: California Colorado River Issues - Overview of Colorado River Issues at 1989
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

'i'rIc(/ic lAw Journal I Vol. 19

1988 / California Colorado Riwr /SSUeJ

ulation of particular lribu!aries between Upper Basin statcs.U These
provisions .rrect any interbasin transfer of Colorado River water.
For nample, Article XIII prohibits Colorado from allowinl the
Burca81e now of the Vamp. River into Utah 10 be less than 5,000.000
acre-feet for any period of ten consecutive yean. In addition. ".U
consumptive use or the waters or the Vamp. River . . . shall be
charged. . . 10 the Stale in which the use is made."J1
Implicit in the Upper Basin Compact, with its apponionment.
accounlinl. storalc," and strict requiremenu for delivery for water
to Lee Ferry to comply with the Colorado River Compact. is the
concept that any water in the Upper Basin System which is not
consumed in one slate, may be benel"icially consumed in another
Upper Basin state. This beneficial use, however. is liubject to release
requirements to the lower Basin.

Approval of the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact by the five
Upper Basin states and by Congress in 1949 was followed by the
Congressional enactment of the Colorado River Storage Project Act
in 1956.JI By this time most of the development of the federal dams
8~d canals in the Lower Basin had been completed and were oper-
attonal, except for the Central Arizona Project and the Southern
Nevada Water Project which had not yet been authorized. The 19.56
Act was designed to develop the waler of the Upper Basin with a
comprehensive, Basin wide development plan. This act authorized,
among many projects, the construction of the Glen Canyon storage
project designed to provide the long term storage necessary to meet
the Upper Basin's release obligations to the Lower Basin.
With Ihat discussion, we shall now examine the more complicated
rClulation of the Colorado River in the Lower Basin.

River Compact, which was discwsed above. The Colorado River
Compacl apportioned the use of 7,.500,000 acre-feet per year to Ihe
Lowcr Basin, with the option to use an additional 1,000,000 acre.
feet per year, presumably from the Gila River.ZI Other key documenls
thai followed the Colorado River Compact included:
(I) Ihe Boulder Canyon Project In 1928;-
(2) the California Limitation Act of 1929;11
(3) the so.-<alled Seven Party Alreement, whereby the Caliromia
State Enlinccr, in rcsponse to a requesl of the Secretary of the
Interior, provided a formula to which the interested parties asreed
for allocation of Colorado River water within California, and the
Se<:relary's water service contracts incorporatinl the Alreement:1J
(4) the decision and decree in Aritolla Y. Clllifomia in 1963 and
1964:"
(') Ihc Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968. which authorized
the Central Arizona Project, but subject.ed thc Colorado River water
supply for that Ions-sought project to a hilhcr California Priority,
and the Secrete.ry's Coordinated Reservoir Operatinl Criteria issued
pursuant 10 that act;'" and
(6) the Secretary's Lowcr Basin conservation rqul_tioRl!'

These documents are all interrelated and deserve analysis.-

1. The Botrfder Canyon Projer:/ A.d -.

D. Lower Basin Rt!gulQlioll

The Boulder Canyon Project Act authorized the construction and
operation of a massive storage and hydroelectric project in a canyon
on a stretch of Ihe Colorado Rivcr that forms the boundary of
Nevada and Arizona." It also authorized the conslruction and op.
eration or the All-American Canal in Imperial County, California,
to replace the then existinl diversion works whicb travelled in part

There are several key documenls involved in the relulation of the
Lower Colorado Ri~er. Firsl and foremost, or course, Is the Colorado

29. Sft,..~nottlI1Alllndl<<Olllplnyilllld;l.
30. ., Sill. 10" (1911) (codified u _dtd at 4] U.S.C. " 6l'.fllp (ln2 A 5upp.
11I19")).
31. 1929 Ct.!. SIll. dl. 16. ICe. 111]..9.
32. Sft' Wlll1nl A En. """.. noce J. II 100].
Jl. m U.S. '46 (196]). """, d",W ]75 U.S. 191 (1964); ]76 U.S. )40 (19M) (1964
~rft).
].. 12 SUI. IU 11961) (codified u ammdecll1 4) U.5.C. .. 1~1."'6 (1911 a SIqJJ).
11119.m.
],. ., C.F.R.U417.I"17.6(1917). .
36. Sn ,Pflr..IIT WIl.IUI. a Eu. ~ note ]; Nalhauon. ..",. noce 6, (e:xcdlml
hiJlorltllorlhe~ documenll).
)7. 4S Sill. 10" (1928) (codirlCd It.] U.S.C. I 611 (1912)). S. WIU\II. a ELT, Ill'"
IIOle ]. tho III.V (hillory or the Boulder ~yoa ~}cd Act).

:u. Id.. 111m. X-XIV.
16. '/d., It In. XIJI(b). TIM Vlmpa R19ft I. I Illbulll"J or lhe Grem RlweI' willett In
IlIrn no_I Inlo Ihe Colorldo Rivn'. '
lP. Id... ~I 1ft. V. The .tIItrll rule Illhll lIorqe loon. 1ft ch8...cd 10 Iht Slatt ht wfIich
lhe r$tr\lOlr 11.localed. lonn from Ilorqe in I rnervoir bulh IrI ItIIIt IlI.lt ror the benrnl
of I ~d Upprr BAlin "lit is ehlfled 10 Iht 111In'.
21. Colorldo Rivn' ~orqc Projccl Ad, 10 5111. I~ (I'''). .s.w 1'f11W111I1 NIl~
~ftOIt6,1111.12. .

1398

1399