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II II II II II t was a time of great plans and grand visions. The goal was to tame the Colorado River, to protect people from floods and put its waters to work irrigating cropland, supplying new industries and producing hydroelectric power for the West's booming cities. But before the dream of constructing large water works to further settle the region could become reality, the river's waters had to be divided. But how? The Colorado already had been tapped by pioneer irrigators in the seven- state region. Each state wanted a share. Each state had its own needs. Each state viewed the others with suspicion and hostility. Yet without a multi-state agreement, the possibility of years of litigation stretched ahead. Too, there was fear among some that the federal government and its young Reclamation Service would usurp the states' rights, build its own projects and assume control of the water. Against this backdrop, seven states' representatives joined then-Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover at Bishop's Lodge in Santa Fe, N.M., on Nov. 9, 1922, for yet another series of negotiations about dividing the Colorado River's waters. After 17 sessions over the next 15 days, the Colorado River Commission emerged with the Colorado River Compact. The compact was and remains a historic milestone. It was the first time more than three states negotiated an agreement among themselves to apportion the " I. I~ II Ii R " II ~l II II waters of a stream. The compact provided for the "equitable division and appor- tionment" of the use of the waters of the Colorado River System by dividing it into two basins, the upper and lower basins. Other major purposes of the compact were "to establish the relative importance of different beneficial uses of water, to promote interstate comity, to remove causes of present and future controversies and to secure the expeditious agricultural and industrial development of the Colorado River Basin, the storage of its waters, and the protection of life and property from floods." The compact attempted to look into the future and determine the water needs of the desert Southwest. But the signers could not foresee the immense urban growth, the technological advances and the interest in protecting the natural environment still to come 75 years later. Nor did they realize that the river's flow was insufficient to meet all the demand. "We believed that the Colorado River carried sufficient water for present and future needs of the seven states and Mexico. The data from the experts were convincing," said Colorado State University Professor Dan Tyler, playing the part of Ward Bannister, a Denver attorney who closely observed the 1922 negotiations. "We were wrong. None of us anticipated the exponential development of industry and recreation, the growth of cities in the basin or the problems associated with irrigated agriculture in heavily salinated soils. What we truly concluded to be D I ~ III u ~ II 4 Western Water ~