7290

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7290
• Author: Anonymous.
• Title: Comments on Colorado River Flows for Endangered Fishes Under the Colorado River Compact, the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, and the Treaty with Mexico.
• USFW Year: 1985.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

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July 22, 1985
LEA

Comments on Colorado River Flows for Endangered Fishes
Under the Colorado River Compact, the Upper Colorado
River Basin Compact, and the Treaty with Mexico.

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The Colorado River Compact of 1922 (CRC) apportions the waters
of the Colorado River System between the Upper Basin and the Lower
Basin of the Colorado River. The Upper Colorado River Basin Compact
of 1948 (UCRBC) apportions the water apportioned to the Upper Basin
under the CRC among the States of the Upper Basin. The 1944
Rio Grande, Colorado, Tijuana Treaty (Treaty), in that part concerned
with the Colorado River, allocates water between the United States and
Mexico.

This commentary is based on a review of the CRC, UCRBC, and Treaty
for their effects on flows in the Colorado River System as they relate
to the endangered fishes. Pertinent excerpts from the Compacts and a
very brief Treaty summary are attached for reference. These excerpts
and summary are prepared for the purpose of discussing the f1Q~
situation for the endangered fishes and are incomplete for more com-
prehensive considerations. -

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The CRC was approved by the Congress in the 1929 Boulder Canyon
Project Act (45 Stat. 1057, 1064; Sec. 13, subsection (a)). The only
modifications made by the Congress concerned ratification requirements
and restrictions on California's water use. Neither affects the Upper
Basin water apportionment or use. The UCRBC was consented to by the
Congress in 1949 (63 Stat. 31), which also had the effect of reaffirming
the CRC. Both Compacts are therefore Acts of Congress, should have at
least the strengths of any other Acts of Congress pertaining to the
Colorado River System, and should be superior to any Congressional Acts
passed subsequent to the Compacts.

The water laws of the several Colorado River Basin States, the
two Compacts and the Treaty, and other Congressional Acts comprise
the "Law of the River". Both Compacts recognize the primacy of each
State and the right of each State to manage the waters within that State.

The key wording in the Compacts is probably the term "in perpetuity",
CRC Article III (a) and UCRBC Articles I (a) and III (a). This can only
mean that the apportionments are permanent, subject only to modification
by consent of all signatory States, and not subject to tampering by
Congress or any other entity. .

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