PUB00155

• Year: 2007
• Title: The Colorado River The Story of a Quest for Certainty on a Diminishing River
• CWCB Section: Administration
• Author: Eric Kuhn
• Description: The Colorado River The Story of a Quest for Certainty on a Diminishing River
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

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Arizona
Colorado
Utah
Wyoming
New Mexico

50,000 af
51.75%
23%
14%
11.25%

The above apportionments became Articles III a (1) and (2) of the compact.

The Upper Colorado River Commission Compact (1948 Compact) was signed by the
commissioners on October 11, 1948. It was quickly ratified by the legislatures of all five states and
ratified by Congress on April 6, 1949.102

Several of the Articles of the compact are worth mentioning. Article I describes the major
purposes of the compact including to provide for the equitable division and apportionment ofthe use
of the waters of the Colorado River System, the use of which was apportioned in perpetuity to the
Upper Basin and "to establish the obligations of each state.... with respect to the deliveries of water
required to be made at Lee Ferry by the Colorado River Compact."

Article III (b) provides that "apportionment is of any and all man-made depletions."

Article IV describes what happens in the event of a curtailment that may be required by
Article III of the 1922 Compact.

· The quantities and times shall be determined by the Upper Colorado River Compact
Commission.

· The penalty for over use is extreme. Article IV (b) requires that if any state (or states)
in the ten years immediately preceding the water year in which curtailment is
necessary, shall have consumed more than it was entitled to under the apportionments
made by Article III (51.75% for Colorado) then such state shall be required to supply
at Lee Ferry a quantity of water equal to its total 1 0 year overdraft before a demand
is made on any other state.

Comment: Water users in Colorado with post 1922 Compact rights, but still relatively senior,
need to consider how implementation of this provision could impact their diversions. Are the
post 1922 seniors going to have to cover the excess depletions by post 1922 juniors for the
previous nine years?

· If there are no curtailments caused by over use as described above, then the extent of
the curtailment shall be on the same percentage as the consumptive use made by each
state in the year immediately preceding the year a curtailment becomes necessary.

102 63 Stat. 31. (1949).

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