WSP11698

• File Number: 8210.470
• Description: Pacific Southwest Interagency Committee
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 8/6/1964
• Author: Unknown
• Title: Lower Colorado River Basin Project - Report with Individual and Minority Views - To Accompany S 1658 - Calendar Number 1267
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

00178S
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THE LOVVERCOLORADO RIVER BAS~ PROJECT

of approximately 242,000 square miles, encompassing practically one-
twelth of the area of the continental United States, excluding Alaska.
Much of thi~ basin, and partic1.ilarly the lower basin, is dependent
upon the waters of the Colorado River in order to make it habitable
and productive. . .
For some 60 years, the efficient use and reg1.ilation of the river for
purposes of reclamation, flood control, and production of power has
been a concern to all of the States through which it flows. As the
uses of the waters of the river increased in California, particularly, so
did the fears of other States that California would appropriate to
her permanent and exclusive use a disproportionate share of the waters
of the river, and that the States which were developing more slowly
would be deprived of their fair share, and of an opportunity to par-
ticipate in the use of the river as a national asset. The fact that the
law of prior appropriation prevailed exclusively in all of the affected
States except California, and was important there, intensified their
fears, particularly after the decision in Wyomingv. Oolorado (259
U.S. 419 (1922)). To allay their fears and to let development pro-
ceed, Con~ress, in 1921, authorized the seven States of the Colorado
River Basm to compact for the equitable division of the waters of the
Colorado River and its tributaries. The compact negotiated pursuant
to this authorization is known as the Colorado River compact, and
was prepared at Santa Fe, N. Mex., in November of 1922.
The Colorado River drainage is divided by the compact into two
basins, an upper basin and a lower basin, with the diVIsion point on
the river being Lee Ferry, Ariz. The compact apportions 7,500,000
of beneficial consumptive use annually in perpetuity to the upper
basin States and 8,500,000 acre-feet annually to the lower basin States,
of waters of the Colorado River system; i.e., from those of the Colo-
rado River and its tributaries within the United States of America.
The possibility of a treaty with Mexico was anticipated, and the
compact allocates the burden of Mexican rights by declaring they shall
be supplied first from surplus over and above the waters allocated to
the two basins, and in the event of shortage that the deficiency is to
be borne equally by the two basins. . The compact also provides that
the upper basin shall not deplete the flow of the river at Lee Ferry
below an aggregate of 75 million acre-feet for any 10 consecutive years.
The compact did not resolve the relative rights of California and
Arizona. Despite the areas of agreement, Arizona and California did
not agree upon the amount of water that each wo1.ild receive from
the lower basin allocation.
It was in this setting that a series of bills, all commonly known as
Swing-Johnson bills, were introduced in Congress authorizing the
construction of a dam on the Colorado and an All-American Canal
from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley in California. Three
of these bills failed. The fourth was enacted and became the Bo1.ilder
Canyon Project Act of December 21, 1928 (45 Stat. 1057). This act
authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and
maintain the m1.iltiple-purpose dam, now known as Hoover Dam. By
the act Congress provided its own method for a eomplete apl;lortion-
ment of the mam-stream water among Arizona, Califorma, and
Nevada, and implemented this method by authorizing the Secretary

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