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<br /> <br />An Overview of the Institutional Setting <br />thus avoidin the outcome which the Su reme Court had reached on <br />g P <br />the Laramie River in Wyoming v. Colorado. <br /> 3. Acts of Congress <br /> There has been but one instance in which the allocation of the waters of an <br /> interstate river was effected by Congressional action. This occurred when <br /> Congress passed the Boulder Canyon Project Act in 1928.20 Since the <br /> enactment of this legislation is germane to the history of the political deals <br /> made in the Colorado River Basin, details concerning the events that led to <br /> the passage of this legislation, and what the act called for, will be addressed <br /> in the next section of this paper. Suffice it to say for now that the U.S. <br />Supreme Court, in interpreting the Boulder Canyon Project Act in litigation <br /> brought against California by Arizona, found that Congress has, under the <br /> navigation and general welfare clauses of the U.S. Constitution, the authority <br /> to divide the waters of an interstate stream by legislative enactment. <br /> d <br />l <br /> Fe <br />era <br />Irrigation Projects <br /> While western water law and judicial, legislative, or negotiated allocations of <br /> interstate rivers provided the necessary legal framework for water resources <br /> development, paper rights and wet water are two different things. <br /> <br /> ... Almost everywhere in the West, water must be taken out of water courses <br /> and applied ... to the fields by irrigation. Appropriation law was well <br /> suited to meet the needs of farmers who depended on irrigation. The <br /> doctrine assured early appropriators of legal rights to a sure supply of <br /> water .... <br /> But in many areas throughout the West small farmers required more than <br /> a legal doctrine to get water to their fields. Crops needed water in the late <br /> summer and early fall, long after snowmelt from the mountains had flowed <br /> past. ... Private enterprise in the form of farming and ranching cooperative <br /> associations was inadequate to raise the capital to build dams for storing <br /> the spring runoff for summer irrigation or to construct canals and laterals <br /> for transporting the water.21 <br /> 20 Boulder Canyon Project Act, ch. 42, 45 Stat. 1057 (1928) (codified as amended at <br />43 U.S.C.A. §§ 617-617t (1986)). <br /> 21 Wi1lQnson, supra note 6, at 320. Footnote omitted. <br /> 9 <br />