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<br />WATER MANAGEMENT ISSUES <br /> <br />Compacts, an international treaty, a Supreme Court decree and <br />numerous Federal and State laws play an important role in Colorado River <br />water management. The Colorado River Compact of 1922 divided the use <br />of waters of the Colorado River System between the Upper and Lower <br />Colorado River Basin. It apportioned in perpetuity to the Upper and Lower <br />Basin, respectively, the beneficial consumptive use of7.5 million acre feet <br />(mat) of water per annum. It also provided that the Upper Basin will not <br />cause the flow of the river at Lee Ferry to be depleted below an aggregate <br />of 75 maf for any period of ten consecutive years. The Mexican Treaty of <br />1944 allotted to Mexico a guaranteed annual quantity of 1.5 maf. These <br />amounts, when combined, exceed the river's long-term average annual <br />flow. <br /> <br />Another compact, the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact of <br />1948, divided the consumptive use of waters available to the Upper Basin <br />states in the following proportions: 50,000 AF/yr to Arizona; of the <br />remainder, Colorado (51.75%), New Mexico (11.25%), Utah (23.00%), and <br />Wyoming, (14.00%). <br /> <br />Colorado River Apportionment <br /> <br />Lower <br />Basin <br /> <br />Mexico <br /> <br /> <br />Upper <br />Basin <br /> <br />UPPER BASIN APPORTIONMENT <br /> <br />Wyoming <br /> <br />Utah <br /> <br /> <br />New Mexico <br /> <br />Within Colorado water allocations are based on the Doctrine of <br />Prior Appropriation or the First-in-Time, First-in-Right Doctrine. This <br />doctrine is found in most arid states because when there is too little water to <br />satisfy all users, sharing of the remaining water would be of little value to <br />any user. Also, some guarantee of water is required to secure the value of <br />investments. These appropriative rights are administered by Division of <br />Water Resources (DWR) officials who follow state law and established <br />procedures in administering and allocating water to users according to <br />decreed priorities. <br /> <br />o <br />C <br />Q <br />c> <br />c-. <br />-.J <br /> <br />It is of great interest to the State and other water users to be able to <br />assess the impacts of water rights transfers or water resource developments. <br />Water rights in Colorado can be viewed as private property whereby a <br />individual owns the rights to beneficial use of the water. These rights can <br />be changed from one type of use to another or from one place to another, <br />but only if no other water right is injured. Such changes require water court <br />approval. Because changes of agricultural ditch and reservoir rights to <br />municipal use are fairly common, concerns arise over whether a transfer of <br />water will affect the supply available to owners of other decreed water <br />rights. <br /> <br />2 <br />