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002024 III. MANAGEMENT OF THE COLORADO RIVER IN THE UNITED STATES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO MEXICO A. The Law of the River Distribution of Colorado River water within the United States is accomplished through a complex system of physical facilities. lbis system is operated to comply with legal obligations under statutes, interstate compacts, court decrees, regulations and contracts, known collectively as "the law of the river." In 1922, the Colorado River Compact divided water between the Upper basin states (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico) and ,lower basin states (California, Arizona and Nevada). The upper basin states agreed to deliver, on the average, 7.5 million acre-feet of water per year to the lower basin states. Later, the Colorado River Basin Project Act empowered the Secretary of Interior to operate facilities to deliver more or less than 7.5 million acre-feet to the lower basin states in years when he detennines that there will be a surplus or shortage of water in the river. A 1944 treaty with Mexico promised that the United States would deliver 1.5 million acre-feet of water each year to Mexico, except in surplus or shortage years9. Under the compact, the responSIbility for delivering that water, if there is a shortage, comes equally out of the Upper and Lower Basin apportionments of water. In 1928, the Boulder Canyon Project Act divided the lower basin's first 7.5 million acre-feet per year of mainstream water among Califomia (4.4 million acre-feet per year), Arizona (2.8 million acre-fe~t per year), and Nevada (300,000 acre-feet per year). In its 1963 Opinion in Ariwna v. California, the United States 'Supreme Court upheld the division of the 1928 Act. The Court's decree also provided that Califomia.would receive 50% of any surplus water, Arizona, 46%, and Nevada, 4%. The upper basin's share - up to 7.5 million acre-feet after Mexico and the lower basin get their guaranteed deliveries - was divided in a compact allocating Colorado 51.75%, Utah 23%, Wyoming 14%, New Mexico 11.25%, and Arizona 50,000 acre-feet per year. As one of the most "controlled" rivers in the world, the Colorado today is radically different than it was a century ago. At the beginning of the last century, a national vision evolved that embodied "taming" the river to meet human needs for flood control, water, power and the irrigation of desert fannland. That vision resulted in the construction of the great Hoover and Glen Canyon Dams and other facilities to divert the river's waters and generate electricity for cities and farms. Today, the river maintains a society and an economy that far surpasses the vision of those who began managing the river a century ago. Most river management infrastructure was financed, built, and is operated by the US Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of the US Department of the Interior. The cost of much of this infrastructure has been or is being reimbursed by t4e sale of water and power to the many project beneficiaries. Some water projects have been planned and constructed by the private sector and by local governments. Examples include the irrigation works that serve: the Imperial and Palo Verde Valleys as well as the locally financed facilities of the Metropolitan Water District that convey Colorado River water to Southern California. 9 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I