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<br />1 The Colorado River Basin: The Agreements and the Results <br />irrigation development in California dated to the turn of the century. Since <br />the introduction of Colorado River water into California's Imperial Valley in <br />1901: <br />... leaders in the Colorado River Basin outside of California had become <br />troubled. All recognized that the future development of their areas <br />depended heavily on the Colorado, and they watched uneasily the advances <br />being made by a state that contributed the least amount of runoff to the <br />river. <br /> Particularly disturbed were residents in the upper portion of the basin <br /> where the growing season was shorter and the lands less easily watered <br /> than in California or Arizona. The upper states wanted reclamation <br /> projects of their own, including some that would benefit areas outside the. <br /> basin, especially in western Utah and eastern Colorado. ... <br /> Heightening such concern throughout the Upper Basin were a series of <br /> events in early 1922. The first occurred in February when the Interior <br /> <br />' Department issued the long-awaited ... Fall-Davis Report -- ... it <br />recommended construction of an All American Canal, a storage reservoir <br /> "at or near Boulder Canyon," and the development of hydroelectric power to <br /> repay the cost of the dam. The next development that disconcerted the <br /> upper states took place in April, when [California's] Congressman Phil <br /> Swing ... and Senator Hiram Johnson ... introduced a bill to implement the <br /> report's recommendations. This Boulder Canyon ... bill met with <br /> immediate hostility from Upper Basin representative [sic], who mounted a <br /> vigorous campaign against it. <br /> S <br />ill <br /> t <br />another cause for alarm in the upper states occurred two months later. <br /> This involved ... the doctrine of prior appropriation .... This principle was <br /> recognized within each basin state, but uncertainty existed over whether it <br /> applied to users in two or more states on a common stream. In June 1922 <br /> the U.S. Supreme Court, in Wyoming v. Colorado, eliminated all doubt by <br /> announcing that the rule of priority applied regardless of state lines. Now <br /> even the law seemed to favor faster-growing states like California. Upper <br /> Basin leaders responded to the decision by reaffirming adamant opposition <br /> to all reclamation on the lower Colorado [River] until their own interests <br /> were safeguarded. <br /> <br />1 <br />15 <br />