7367

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7367
• Author: Nathanson, M. N.
• Title: Updating the Hoover Dam Documents.
• USFW Year: 1978.
• USFW - Doc Type: Denver, Colorado.
• Copyright Material: NO

4

UPDATING THE HOOVER DAM DOCUMENTS

(3) Article lI(b) defines the "Colorado River Basin" as "all of the drainage area of the Colorado River
System and all other territory wihin the United States of America to which the water of the Colorado River
System shall be beneficially applied." .
(4) Article lI(c) defines the term "States of the Upper Division" as "the States of Colorado, New Mexico,
Utah, and Wyoming."
(5) Article lI(d) defines the term "States of the Lower Division" as "the States of Arizona, California, and
Nevada."
(6) Article II (e) defines "Lee Ferry" as "a point in the mainstream of the Colorado River one mile below
the mouth of the Paria River."
(7) Articles lI(f) and (g) define the terms "Upper Basin" and "Lower Basin," thus dividing the Colorado
River Basin into these two basins.
(8) Article lIth) defines "domestic use" as including "the use of water for household, stock, municipal,
mining, milling, industrial, and other like purposes, but shall exclude the generation of electrical power."
(9) Article lII(a) apportions from the Colorado River System, in perpetuity, the exclusive beneficial con-
sumptive use of 7.5 maf/yr to each of the two Basins for beneficial consumptive use.
(10) Article lII(b) provides that, in addition to the lII(a) apportionment, the Lower Basin was given the
right to increase its beneficial consumptive use by 1 mafl yr.
(11) Article lII(c) provides that if (as has proved to be the case) the United States shall recognize the right
of Mexico to the use of any waters of the Colorado River System, such waters shall first be supplied from
the waters which are surplus over and above the aggregate of the quantities specified in paragraphs lII(a)
and (b). It also provided that if such surplus shall prove insufficient for this purpose, the Mexican deficiency
is to be borne equally by the Upper and Lower Basins, and whenever necessary the States of the Upper
Division shall deliver at Lee Ferry water to supply one-half the deficiency so recognized in addition to that
provided in paragraph (d). .
(12) Article lII(d) provides that the Upper Division States "will not cause the flow of the river at Lee Ferry
to be depleted below an aggregate of 75,000,000 acre-feet for any period of 10 consecutive years..."
(13) Article Ill(e) provides that the Upper Division States shall not withhold water, and the Lower Divi-
sion States shall not require the delivery of water, which cannot reasonably be applied to domestic and
agricultural use.
(14) Article IV(a) provides that since the Colorado River had ceased to be navigable the use of Colorado
River water for navigation shall be subservient to the uses of such waters for domestic, agricultural and
power purposes.
(15) Article IV(b) provides that the impoundment and use of waters for the generation of electrical power
shall be subservient to the use and consumption of such water for agricultural and domestic purposes.
(16) Article VII provides that nothing in the Compact shall be construed as affecting the obligations of the
United States to Indian Tribes.
(17) Article VIll provides that present perfected rights to the beneficial use of waters of the Colorado
River System are unimpaired by this compact.
(18) Article XI provides that the compact shall become binding and obligatory when it shall have been
approved by the legislatures of each of the signatory States and by the Congress of the United States.
Although the river had produced an average flow for the two decades preceding 1922 that would have ac-
commodated 16 maf/yr in beneficial consumptive use annually from the waters of the Colorado River Sys-
tem for the two Basins, the Upper Basin (by virtue of Article Ill(d) of the Compact) assumed the burden of
drier cycles occurring thereafter. Hence, the Lower Basin has received a guaranteed 10-year (not annual)
minimum flow of 75 maf at the Lee Ferry compact point. The Upper Basin became a guarantor in the sense
that its depletions may not reduce the 10-year aggregate flow below the 75 maf at the Lee Ferry compact
point.

B.4 Compact Approval

The Compact was signed by each of the seven Basin States. Six of the seven States ratified the Compact in
1923 but Arizona did not ratify it until 1944, 21 years later. In 1925, four ratifying States modified the re-
quirement for seven State approval and ratified the Compact which was to become effective upon approval

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