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<br />21 <br /> <br />it contributed the most water to the Colorado River and h<ld the most potential <br /> <br />to "beneficially consume" its waters. The Colorado deleg<ltes, then, were able <br /> <br />to exert a great deal of influence in the negotiations not only because of <br /> <br />their competence and the out''lard respect that the other delegates accorded them; <br /> <br />Colorado's natural conditions also dictated that it be the most pivotal state <br /> <br />in the Upper Basin. <br /> <br />The Upper Colorado River Basin Compact Commission had a series of eight <br /> <br />meetings designated as "compact negotiations" 1:::et'"een 1946 and 1948 in various <br /> <br />cities of the W2st. Meeting Five, held in Denver between December 1-4, 1947 <br /> <br />was one of t11e most important, lengthy, and progressive of all these meetings. <br /> <br />It served as a forum for the various state delegations to present the specific <br /> <br />"factors" that their respective states wanted to be considered in the course <br /> <br />of the deliberations and in the actual forming of the Upper Basin compact. This <br /> <br />meeting e}~osed many of the concerns and apprehensions of Colorado and of the <br /> <br />other four states regarding their relations with Colorado, the state that was <br /> <br />certain to control the largest apportionment of Upper Basin water. <br /> <br />Meeting Five commenced with a report by J.R. Riter, Chairman of the Engin- <br /> <br />eering Advisory Committee, "hich was in effect a three-page summary of the research <br /> <br />the engineers were assigned by the Commission to do. Most of the liork consisted <br /> <br />of measurements of actual and potential use of irrigable land among the various <br /> <br />states (one of the stumbling blocks in 1922), measurements of ,~ter contribution <br /> <br />and depletion by the states according to estimations at key gauging stations, <br /> <br />and studies of river and reservoir operations to determine the ability of the <br /> <br />Upper Basin to deliver its share of water to the Lower Basin and Mexico in <br />74 <br />unusually dry years (another consideration not included in the 1922 compact.) <br /> <br />These various measurements and assessments to which Riter here alluded were <br />