Laserfiche WebLink
<br />2 QOLORADO RIVER STORAGE PROJECT <br />, <br />use of 7,500,000 ~cre-feet of water pel' annum. The compact provides <br />also that . ' <br />The States of the tipper divisIon will not cauae the flow of the river at Lee Ferry <br />to be depleted belo~ all aggregate of 75 million acre.feet for any period of !() <br />conBeout.lve years *:* III <br />The compact prescribes the ma,nner in which waters of the Colorado <br />River sY8tem ma:y be made available to Mexico under any water <br />rights recognized', by the United States, The Mexican Treaty of <br />1945 provides basically for an annual delivery by the United States <br />to Mexico of 1,5QO,000 acre-feet of Colorado RIver water. Of the <br />many provisions in tho Colorado River compact and the Mexican <br />'freaty concerningi the use of the water of the Colorado River system, <br />those briefed abov~ lIre of particular importance to the program now <br />being initiated in the upper basin. <br />Water allocated to tbe upper basin by the Colorado River compact <br />was further apportioned to the individnal States of the upper bashl <br />by the Upper Colorado River Basin compact which was signed in <br />1948. Under the :terms of this compact Arizona is permitted to <br />consume 50,000 acre-feet of wat.er Ill1l1lially from the upper Colorado <br />River system and the remaining water I allocated to the upper basin <br />is apportioned to o~her States in the following percentages. <br />.p,rcmt I PM'cent <br />Colort\do____________~- .___~_ _ 51.75 UtalL _ _ ~R_.__ u_ __p u_______ 23,01} <br />New Mexioo_____~___~-_______ t1. 25 Wyoming____________________ 14.00 <br />The upper-basin ~ompact created the Upper Colorado River Com- <br />mission, an int,e1'8tate admini8trative agency. The commission con- <br />sists of a representative of ench of the States of Oolorado, New <br />Mexico, Utah, and ~yoming, and the Federal Government, <br /> <br />l 8TORAGl'J REQUIREMENT <br /> <br />, The flow of the C~lorado River is extremely errlltic, historical flow <br />varying from 4,400,000 to 22,000,000 acre-feet annually at Lee Ferry. <br />'rhe el<treme drought of recent year8 has accent.uated the, problems <br />of.river regulation a~d use, In prolonged dry periods thorc- is not <br />eno\lgh flow to permit the upper basin to consume its apportioned <br />water and at the same time to meet its obligations to the lower basin <br />and, to Mexico, In 'wetter periods, however, flows are more than <br />sufficient for these purposes. Large holdover storage reservoirs are <br />thus needed to provj~e additional water when needed for compact <br />f?lilllment during prolsmged period~ rf drought, Favorable opportuni- <br />tIes for such reservOIrs are ,Pro\'lded by the deep canyons of the <br />Colorado River and ifts principal tributaries in the upper bllt!in. <br />Further informationlon the water-supply situation is presented later <br />in this report. ! <br />, PROJECT PLAN <br /> <br />A plan for the Colo~ado River storage project aDd an initial group <br />of participating project~ has been formulatsd by the Bureau of Recltl. <br />matioD in coo!>eratioD' with other Federal agencies and with the <br />States of the Upper 'Colorado River Basin. The projeot report <br />prepared in 1950 and $ supplemental report prepared in 1953 were <br />printed as House DoculnentNo. 364, 83d Congress, 2d set!sion. Re-, <br />ports on the participatipg projects in the initial group, supplemental <br />