WSP11181

• File Number: 8200.300.40
• Description: Colorado River Compact
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 9/1/1991
• Author: CSU
• Title: Delph Carpenter - Father of Colorado River Treaties - Text of Gov. Ralph L. Carr's 1943 Salute to Delph Carpenter
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

New Mexico. Here the problem was a
constant scarcity with enough cultivated
acres in either state to justify the diversion of
the entire flow. The problem of division was
a tough assignment. But Delph Carpenter for
Colorado and the late Stephen B. Davis for
New Mexico arranged a settlement. It
required two trips to the United States
Supreme Court to sustain the agreement and
to bring the announcement that compacts
between states on irrigation streams are legal
and valid.

Then came the great Colorado River
conference. This time seven states, the
National Government and the Republic of
Mexico were involved, with almost every
range in altitude, both above and some below
sea level, with variations in climate, character
of vegetation, condition of evaporation, kind
of soil and aptitudes of water users, offering
every imaginable difficulty, At Santa Fe a
representative of the Federal Government in
the person of Secretary of Commerce
Herbert Hoover, and Commissioners for the
states of Arizona, California, Colorado,
Nevada, New Mexico. Utah and Wyoming
gathered, No similar effort probably has ever
been attempted, The result which some
hoped might be attained really seemed
impossible. Each state had its own peculiar
viewpoint.

,

But as the weeks passed under the calm
guidance of the Secretary of Commerce, an
understanding finally commenced to develop.
The mind of Delph Carpenter reached the
height of its accomplishments and his was
the hand which penned the major portion of
the great document. A peace treaty was

signed which permitted the construction of
the great Hoover Dam near Boulder City.
Nevada. and carried to the people of seven
states and a sister republic encouragement
and growth.

The people of seven states know the limits of
the water rights available for future
development. They can farm with assurance
that so long as the river flows, acres will be
irrigated, their people will prosper and
America will profit. They know also, that, in
the meantime, the less progressive states will
lose none of the rights which are theirs and
which must be saved for them until their
lands are peopled, and funds are available
for the construction of irrigation facilities.
The power developed by the great turbines at
Hoover Dam is shaping a new Southwest.
Water is lifted more than a thousand feet
over the Coastal Mountain Range. to bless
and enrich the people of the Los Angeles
district and Southern California generally.

Interstate relations involved in the sale and
distribution of power and water at the dam
have been adjusted, from time to time,
through the aid of a committee of fourteen
men from the seven states. When the cost
of the dam has been repaid the early
earnings will be the subject of further
discussion. They should in the very nature of
things go to the states for their enrichment
and greater realization of water benefits.

After the execution of the Colorado River
Compact, stricken with an illness which has
never left him. nevertheless Delph Carpenter
attacked the hardest task of his life - the
settlement of the controversy, over the flow of

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