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7/14/2009 5:02:35 PM
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UCREFRP
UCREFRP Catalog Number
9367
Author
Colorado Water Workshop.
Title
Proceedings
USFW Year
1992.
USFW - Doc Type
Colorado Water Workshop July 22-24, 1992.
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<br />is an excellent representation of the views of both the tribes and <br />potential water marketers, and water consumers here at the conference. <br />I would only underscore the point that demography and geography seem <br />to be conspiring to keep the water in the Colorado River basin running <br />down into California. <br /> <br />Politics <br />Eighth, we have, of course, politics. Consider the relative <br />power of the seven basin states, and as John put it, we do not have <br />the votes. The numbers are interesting and revealing. California has <br />54 votes in the House of Representatives. Colorado has six. Adding <br />the votes of the other five basin states, that is to say Colorado and <br />all of the others except California, and the total comes to 33. This <br />imbalance of power will affect where the water ends up. <br />Is the Law of the River obsolete? If obsolescence is a continuum <br />somewhere between very new and very old, between unchanged and <br />completely changed, clearly the Law of the River falls somewhere on <br />that continuum. It falls somewhere towards the change, but not <br />necessarily obsolete. It is inconceivable to me that the 1922 signers <br />of the Colorado River Compact envisioned even one-tenth of the social, <br />legal, political, and environmental forces that now determine where <br />Colorado River water is going to end up. Someone asked me during the <br />break whether I thought it is Congress, or the states re-compacting, <br />who can directly affect the Compact. I think that is a one-sided <br />debate. David Getches, for one, believes that Congress can explicitly <br />override, or amend a compact, by a piece of explicit legislation. <br />Others, and I inferred from Jim Lochhead's remarks that he is among <br />them, believe that Congress can affect pieces of legislation, such as <br />the Colorado River Storage Act, or the Basin Act that was interpreted <br />in Arizona versus.California, but not override the Compact. That is <br />a debate unto itself. I do not think that it ultimately determines <br />or controls the eight factors that I have talked about today. The <br />real salient aspect of where water ends up depends on those things <br />short of amending the Compact, short of rendering it totally obsolete <br />in a legal sense, or superseding it. I think the real forces are <br />those eight. <br />It was interesting that 400 years ago that Shakespeare said, <br />"it's a brave new world." Even that was many "new worlds" ago. I <br />think that if one takes a fresh and broad view of what the Law of the <br />River is, what constitutes it in a very broad and sociological sense, <br />you would have to conclude that it is a "brave new world" for the Law <br />of the River. Is it obsolete? I think not. However, I do think that <br />the 1922 Compact signers would scarcely recognize it. <br /> <br />Lori Potter's comments have been edited by the staff at the Colorado <br />Water Resources Research Institute. Ms. Potter has been out of the <br />country and unable to personally edit her remarks. <br /> <br />23 <br />
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