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" and Mexico. The constant threat of an unmanageable break of the river into Imperial Valley during flood stages was also becoming more serious with the rising level of the river and its flood plains within the levees protecting the Imperial Valley. Meanwhile rapid growth ofthe metropolitan districts of the southern California coastal region was creating a great demand for a large block of power and for additional municipal water supplies. Similar demands for municipal water for the growing city of Denver in the adjacent Platte River Basin were anticipated. About the same time a keen interest in the Colorado River was being displayed by various public and private agencies, seeking the right to develop hydroelectric power but proposing to provide storage and flood control incidentally. An extensive investigation by the Bureau of Reclamation to develop ways and means of meeting all of the various needs resulted in the recommendation for the construction of a dam either in Boulder Canyon or Black Canyon for flood control, navigation improvement, irrigation storage, silt control and power development. The long standing need for a canal wholly within the United States also was recognized and it was recommended that such a canal connecting the river at Laguna Dam with the Imperial Valley be constructed and thus eliminate all international complications." Legal and Political Developments in the VDper Basin In the early 1900s interstate water law was a relatively new issue. One of the early legal scholars and leaders was Colorado's Delph Carpenter. Much has been written about the career of Mr. Carpenter. He is often credited as the father of the interstate water compacts. 50 During his luncheon address at the Colorado River District's fall water seminar on September 21,2004, Colorado Director of the Department of Natural Resources Russ George said that the concept of intrastate compacts, and thus HB-1177, was in part based on the principals of interstate compact negotiations as developed by Delph Carpenter.5! Early on, Carpenter and others first viewed states as sovereigns that could fully use all waters originating within or flowing into a state. However, this concept was quickly dashed by a series of 50Daniel Tyler, "Delphus Emory Carpenter and the Colorado River Compact of 1922." University of Denver Water Law Review, Summer 1998. See preface, page 228. 51Director George referred to the recent book by Daniel Tyler, "Silver Fox of the Rockies, the Autobiography of Delph us Carpenter." He also credits the idea to attorney Peter Nichols. Page -18-