South Platte River Compact

• File Number: 8461.350
• Description: Legislation
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 4/27/1923
• Author: CO and NE
• Title: South Platte River Compact
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Compact

seventeenth day of December, 1921, and after supplying the additional future
appropriations in the Lower Section for the benefit of which a prior and preferred use of
thirty-five thousand acre-feet of water is reserved by subparagraph (a) of this Article,
may be diverted by said canal between the fifteenth day of October of any year and the
first day of April of the next succeeding year subject to the following reservations,
limitations and conditions:
(a) In addition to the water now diverted from the Lower Section of the river by
present perfected appropriations, Colorado hereby reserves the prior, preferred and
superior right to store, use and to have in storage in readiness for use on and after the first
day of April in each year, an aggregate of thirty-five thousand acre-feet of water to be
diverted from the flow of the river in the Lower Section between the fifteenth day of
October of each year and the first day of April of the next succeeding year, without
regard to the manner or time of making such future uses, and diversions of water by said
Nebraska canal shall in no manner impair or interfere with the exercise by Colorado of
the right of fi?ture use of the water hereby reserved.
(b) Subject at all times to the reservation made by subparagraph (a) and to the other
provisions of this Article, said proposed canal shall be entitled to divert five hundred
cubic feet of water per second of time from the flow of the river in the Lower Sections, as
of priority of appropriation of date December 17, 1921, only between the fifteenth day of
October of any year and the first day of April of the next succeeding year upon the
express condition that the right to so divert water is and shall be limited exclusively to
said annual period and shall not constitute the basis for any claim to water necessary to
supply all present and future appropriations in the Upper Section or present
appropriations in the Lower Section and those hereafter to be made therein as provided in
subparagraph (a).
3. Neither this compact nor the construction and operation of such a canal nor the
diversion, cai-riage and application of water thereby shall vest in Nebraska, or in those in
charge or control of said canal or in the users of water therefrom, any prior, preferred or
superior servitude upon or claim or right to the use of any water of the South Platte River
in Colorado from the first day of April to the fifteenth day of October of any year or
against any present or future appropriator or use of water from said river in Colorado
dtu-ing said period of every year, and Nebraska specifically waives any such claims and
agrees that the same shall never be made ar asserted. Any surplus waters of the river,
which otherwise would flow past the Interstate Station during such period of any year
after supplying all present and fiiture diversions by Colorado, may be diverted by such a
canal, subject to tlie other provisions and conditions of this Article.
4. Diversion of water by said canal shall not diminish the flow necessary to pass the
Inteistate Station to satisfy superior claims of users of water from the river in Nebraska.
5. No appropriarions of water from the South Platte River by any other canal within
Colorado shall be transferred to said canal or be claimed or asserted for diversion and
carriage for use on lands in Nebraska.
6. Nebraska shall have the right to regulate diversions of water by said canal for the
puiposes of protecting other diversions from the South Platte River within Nebraska and