FLOOD10333 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Kansas/Colorado Compact? Chuck Lile. Director Colorado Water Conservation Board This morning we will walk )OU through some information on the Arkansas River Compact. I spent some time these last two days reading over the compact and also looking over the Special Master's decision. But. first as a preface. all my remarks will be corrected by our attorney who will speak after lunch. I have distributed some outlines of the speech along with some related history and salient provisions of the interstate compact. I would like to regress a bit and describe to the audience what a compact is. particularly for those of you that are not familiar with water terminology. . An interstate compact is an agreement that has been reached between two or more states in regard to water. the operation of a river system and how that river system is to be apportioned to protect the interest of those states. Compacts are entered into. and particularly in this case the Arkansas River Compact. through Congressional and state authorization. The compacts must be ratified by both state legislatures. They also must be ratified by the United States Congress and. in fact. they become law in each state and a law of the United States. When two states are in a controversy. they can only deal with the disagreement by compacting or litigating. Under our Constitution there are provisions for how to enter into agreements between two.or more states, With regard to recent history. the Special Master said that the meaning of the Arkansas River Compact cannot be fully understood apart from therich history of the controversy over the river and early efforts to apportion its waters between the two states. Certainly. I feel that you have to look at the history of an issue and understand the background of how we got from point A to point B before you can fully understand the issues. I initially was going to begin the history of the compact from 1861 until I was reminded about some earlier history in the Arkansas Basin; in particular, about the time period when mountain men were coming into the Arkansas Basin at Bent's Fort, one of the first settlements. During that same time period, irrigation was being done by the Spanish settlers and Indians that were living in the basin along the Arkansas River. In fact. I have been reading a history of the City of Pueblo, and have found that the early Mormon settlers. as they were moving west to Utah. actually learned to irrigate by working with settlers along the banks of the Arkansas that were near Pueblo before they moved to Utah, So, the history of irrigation in the west has been greatly influenced by what occurred back in the early 1800s on the Arkansas River. Kansas reached statehood in 1861. One of the things that sets Kansas apart from other states is that it has two types of water supplies. In the east. there is an abundance of water through rain; however, as you move further west Kansas becomes drier. In the 1800s most of the people settling in the west were from the east or even Europe. They relied on rain and were not used to the idea of irrigating. They brought a system developed in the east called "The Riparian Doctrine." which held that if you lived along the stream, you had a right to use that stream, but you could not deplete the stream by using water consumptively. You could be watering your livestock or drinking out ofit. but you were not diverting it and irrigating with it. hence reducing the amount of physical supply. This type of doctrine was developed in the east since there was an abundance of water supply. However, with the advent of mining, the history of irrigation and the arid nature of the West. we have taken water from the streams and moved it great distances to irrigate fields and raised crops. We have taken water from the streams and used it for mining purposes, The Prior Appropriation Doctrine came from some of the disputes tlia:t occurred in California in 1849 and later in Colorado when people rushed to California to develop mining. Often these disputes arose concerning how to utilize the water of those limited stream systems. Miners' courts were set up to settle these disputes. The courts dealt with how much water you were allowed to use from the stream by establishing a principle of "First in time, first in right;" hence, the Doctrine of Prior Appropriation was founded and later that concept was brought to Colorado with the advent of the mining industry. Of course, it further went on to apply to irrigational practices. Oftentimes fights were settled a lot differently. Interestingly enough, I was reading excerpts from the Supreme Court decision on the Arkansas River. It stated if the issue was not between two states, but between two private parties that were fighting, the issue would probably be settled by force. Oftentimes this was the case in the early history of the West. Arkansas River Basin Water Forum 8 itA River of Dreams and Realities"