8014

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8014
• Author: McDonald, W. J.
• Title: The Upper Basins' Political Conundrum
• USFW Year: 1997.
• USFW - Doc Type: A Deal is Not a Deal.
• Copyright Material: NO

1 The Colorado River Basin: The Agreements and the Results
Federal involvement in flood control im rovements likewise dates back well
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into the 1800s, again through the Corps of Engineers. Improvements initially
were limited to dikes, levees, cutoffs, and other manipulations of a river
channel's configuration. Authorization of fede"rally financed reservoir projects
for flood control purposes followed around the turn of the century.
Originally, the costs of constructing and maintaining flood control facilities
were, as with navigation projects, borne entirely by the United States, with no
repayment required from those protected by such facilities. Congress changed
this policy in 1936, when it enacted legislation requiring states or their
political subdivisions, at their expense, to: (a) provide all lands, easements,
and rights-of--way required for a flood control project, and (b) operate and
maintain facilities after they had been constructed.31
If flood control is incor orated into a multipurpose Corps of Engineers`
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reservoir project (e.g., a project for power generation and flood control), then
the joint costs of multipurpose project features are allocated among the
various purposes, with the flood control purpose being non-reimbursable. If
recreation or fish and wildlife purposes are included with a Corps of
Engineers' flood control project, then the construction and O&M costs
allocable to these purposes are subject to the same arrangements as discussed
above for the federal reclamation program.sz
In short, federal navigation and flood control projects, as with the federal
reclamation program, presented an attractive subsidy. This too helped set the
stage for conflicts between upper and lower basins as each sought a slice of
the federal water development project pie.

The Colorado River Basin: The Agreements and the Results
Introduction

The Colorado River and its major tributaries rise in the Rocky Mountains in
Colorado and Wyoming. Its drainage basin encompasses portions of those two
states, as well as portions of California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, and
essentially all of Arizona. Except in the mountains which ring the
31 Flood Control Act of 1936, ch. 688, § 3, 49 Stat. 1571 (codified at 33 U.S.C.A. § 701c
(1986)).
~ Federal Water Project Recreation Act, 16 U.S.C. §4601-13 (1993).
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