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<br /> <br />STATES' <br />PERSPECTIVES <br /> <br />The second principle that he sought to achieve <br />was no interstate application of the prior appropria- <br />tion doctrine. Carpenter was clearly a proponent of <br />the prior appropriation doctrine, but on an interstate <br />basis he viewed that as an extreme threat. His view <br />was really guided by two cases: Kansas v. Colorado, in <br />which the court announced the doctrine of equitable <br />apportionment. Later, I think he was surprised and <br />shocked to learn in Wyoming v. Colorado that the <br />court wouldn't follow its prior ruling in Kansas v. <br />Colorado, but instead would apply the prior appro- <br />priation doctrine interstate between two prior <br />appropriation states. <br />I might mention that Ward Bannister disagreed <br />with Carpenter as to the potential effect of Wyoming <br />v. Colorado on the Colorado River. Bannister viewed <br />California as a corollary to Kansas in that the root <br />doctrine of California's water law system is the <br />riparian doctrine. Bannister therefore felt that the <br />court would eventually apply principles of equitable <br />apportionment instead of principles of prior appro- <br />priation interstate. Nevertheless, Carpenter sought to <br />make sure that through the Compact, the prior <br />appropriation doctrine would never be applied to the <br />detriment of the Upper <br />Basin states - that the <br />Upper Basin states <br />would clearly have a <br />perpetual allocation. <br />That was achieved in <br />Article III(e), which <br />limits claims of the <br />Lower Basin to those <br />which are reasonably <br />necessary for their use. <br />Article IV(b) makes <br /> <br />clearly was the fourth <br /> <br />Avoiding litigation <br /> <br />SYMPOSIUM <br />PROCEEDINGS <br />MAY 1997 <br /> <br />o <br /> <br />goal of Carpenter's, <br /> <br />and I think it was <br /> <br />likewise a goal of <br />each of the states. <br /> <br />power consumption <br />- James Lochhead subservient to domestic <br />and irrigation uses. <br />And Article VIII preserves prior perfected rights <br />through the Compact. <br />There's been some discussion on Carpenter's <br />third principle of eliminating the threat of federal <br />encroachment on states' rights. His views evolved <br />over a number of years in a number of different ways. <br />Ward Bannister referred to the embargoes in the Rio <br />Grande Basin and the North Platte Basin. The federal <br />government also asserted in Colorado's state water <br />court in the adjudication proceedings in the Grand <br />Valley Project had in essence a reserved right for <br />reclamation projects in the West. Carpenter and <br />others were very fearful of that. The Reclamation <br />Service at that time viewed the Reclamation Act as <br />vesting the service with the authority to assert a date <br />of appropriation that could usurp any senior or <br /> <br />junior state development. Carpenter also saw these <br />assertions of federal claims in the Kansas v. Colorado <br />and the Wyoming v. Colorado cases, where the federal <br />government asserted the right to all unappropriated <br />water in the West. Basically, the federal government <br />asserted that federal rights were the origin of any <br />claims to water in the West, and that anything not <br />then in private hands under appropriation was <br />controlled by the federal government. <br />One of the most interesting documents I read was <br />a piece of testimony that Carpenter gave to Congress <br />- I think it was in 1926 on the Boulder Canyon <br />Project Act - and I can only describe it as a diatribe. <br />He went on and on about the damned federal <br />government and how the federal government was <br />trying to encroach into states' affairs. He alluded to <br />a study that had been done in the Reclamation <br />Service under Davis, that he really felt was a federal <br />plot. He viewed the study as the Reclamation Service <br />positioning itself as the sole expert and repository of <br />knowledge of water development in the West, and <br />that states really couldn't do it. He viewed the <br />service's threat as being to put the states into <br />interstate litigation, create chaos, and out of the <br />chaos, all of the states would look to the federal <br />government for the development that the states <br />wanted. <br />And so he had very strongly held views on <br />federal authority. In the 22nd meeting of the <br />Compact Commission here at Bishop's Lodge, <br />after the negotiators had agreed on the basic <br />elements (they basically had agreed on everything) <br />of the Compact, they were wrapping up a number <br />of issues, one of which was, how should we deal <br />with the issues of federal authority? And Ottamer <br />Hamale, who was the chief counsel for the <br />Reclamation Service, asserted that the Compact <br />was really just an agreement between the states, <br />that it wasn't an agreement between the states and <br />the federal government. The federal government <br />was there in a paternalistic way to oversee things <br />and referee the issues between the states. Hamale <br />asserted that in the Compact there should be a <br />general reservation of all federal rights, whatever <br />they may be. <br />Herbert Hoover asked Hamale, "What might <br />those federal rights be?" Hoover had earlier talked <br />about the treaty rights, the rights with regard to <br />Native Americans, the rights to regulate power <br />development on federal lands, and the rights of the <br />federal government for navigation. So he asked <br />Hamale, "What rights might those be?" And Hamale <br />said, "The federal government asserts the right to all <br />unappropriated water in the West." And I'm sure that <br />Carpenter at rhat point, as well as the others, just <br />