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C~ The Upper Basins' Political Conundrum: A Deal is Not a Deal Ratification of the compact by Arizona, the nearly concurrent execution of the Mexican Water Treaty with Mexico in 194457 (which allocated 1.5 million acre-feet per annum of the Colorado River to Mexico58), and the conclusion of World War II set the stage for the next chapter in the river's political history. The preface to this chapter lay in the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928. In formulating the act, the Upper Division States had bargained for and received, in addition to the provisions concerning the ratification of the Colorado River Compact, authorization for Reclamation: ... to make investigation and public reports of the feasibility of projects for irrigation, generation of electric power, and other purposes ... for the purpose ... of formulating a comprehensive scheme of control and the improvement and utilization of the water of the Colorado River and its tributaries.ss While initiated in the 1930s, completion of the requisite investigations was delayed by World War II. When forthcoming in 1946, the inventory of potential developments in the Colorado River Basin60 pointed out that there were more potential projects than water available for development. The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), which had prepared the inventory, took 51 Rio Grande, Colorado, and Tijuana Treaty in T. WITMER, supra note 36, at 456 (hereinafter Mexican Water Treaty). The treaty is commonly referred to in this country as the Mexican Water Treaty. It had been signed only three weeks before the Arizona legislature ratified the Colorado River Compact, a fact which reinforced Arizona's decision to bring its recalcitrance to an end. The history of tensions between the United States and Mexico over the waters of the Rio Grande, Tijuana, and Colorado Rivers, which tensions dated back to the 1870s, and the history of the negotiation of the treaty, are thoroughly documented in N. HUNDLEY, DIVIDING THE WATERS: A CENTURY OF CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO (1966). ~ Mexican Water Treaty, art. 10(a). Even though Article III(c) of the Colorado River Compact of 1922 anticipated a future treaty with Mexico and provided for the delivery of water to Mexico out of the supplies apportioned to the basin states in the event of a deficiency, this obligation is one which the basin states have argued should be fulfilled by the federal government since the flows of the river are seemingly less than was assumed when the compact was negotiated (supra note 43). Proposals to augment the water supply of the Colorado River have, however, thus far come to naught. See, e.g., 43 U.S.C.A. § 1512 (1986), which was one of the deals contained in the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968, discussed infra. ss Boulder Canyon Project Act, ch. 42, § 15, 45 Stat. 1065 (1928) (codified at 43 U.S.C.A. § 617n (1986)). so BUREAU OF RECLAMATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, THE COLORADO RIVER: A COMPREHENSIVE REPORT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WATER RESOURCES OF THE COLORADO RIVER BASIN FOR IRRIGATION, POWER PRODUCTION, AND OTHER BENEFICIAL USES IN ARIZONA, CALIFORNIA, COLORADO, NEVADA, NEW MEXICO, UTAH, AND WYOMING (1946). 20 1 1 [1 ~I 1 1