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Colorado River Workshop Handbook for the CWCB July 20 2004
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Colorado River Workshop Handbook for the CWCB July 20 2004
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7/19/2012 4:15:38 PM
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7/19/2012 4:07:11 PM
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Water Supply Protection
Description
Colorado River Workshop Handbook for the CWCB July 20 2004
State
CO
Basin
Colorado Mainstem
Date
7/20/2004
Title
Colorado River Workshop Handbook for the CWCB July 20 2004
Water Supply Pro - Doc Type
Meeting
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"Law of the River" Overview <br />I. Colorado River Compact (§ 37 -61 -101, C.R.S.) <br />A. Negotiated in 1922 by representatives of the seven Colorado River Basin <br />states and the federal government; effective in 1929 after congressional <br />approval in the Boulder Canyon Project Act (43 U.S.C. § 617 -0 and passage <br />of California Limitation Act (where California agreed "expressly and <br />unconditionally" with the United States, for the benefit of the other Colorado <br />River Basin States, to limit its uses of the Lower Basin's Compact share to 4.4 <br />MAFY). <br />B. Article II(e) & (f) split the Colorado River Basin (at Lee Ferry, Arizona) into <br />an Upper Basin, roughly including the slower developing, higher elevation <br />states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, and a Lower Basin <br />encompassing primarily the fast - growing desert states of Arizona, California, <br />and Nevada. <br />C. Article III(a) allocates "in perpetuity" the "exclusive beneficial consumptive <br />use of 7,500,000 acre -feet of water per annum" to each Basin. <br />D. Article III(b) gives the Lower Basin the right to use an additional 1 MAFY, <br />making its total apportionment 8.5 MAFY. The addition million is implicitly <br />to be satisfied from Lower Basin tributaries (Article II(a) defines "Colorado <br />River System" to include all tributaries). <br />E. Article III(c) provides that any future Mexican treaty obligation is to be <br />satisfied first "from the waters which are surplus over and above the aggregate <br />of the quantities specified in paragraphs (a) and (b)" and "if surplus shall <br />prove insufficient," the burden is to be borne equally by the Upper and Lower <br />Basin. <br />F. Article III(d) is the Lower Basin's protection. It provides that the Upper <br />Division may not "cause the flow at Lee Ferry to be depleted" below 75 <br />million acre -feet every 10 years. <br />G. Article III(e) gives both Basins protection: it provides that the Upper Division <br />"shall not withhold water," and the Lower Division "shall not require the <br />delivery of water," "which can not reasonably be applied to domestic and <br />agricultural uses." <br />H. These are the apportionment provisions of the compact: other provisions about <br />power uses, present perfected rights, and the like have not been included for <br />the sake of brevity. <br />I. The Colorado River Compact was negotiated after several decades of <br />abnormally high flows on the Colorado, so that it overestimated the long -term <br />supply of the Colorado River Basin. This wasn't immediately apparent until <br />the low flow years of the 1930s and 1950s. <br />II. ,Upper Colorado River Basin Compact (§ 37 -62 -101, C.R.S.) <br />A. Negotiated in 1948 by representatives of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, <br />Utah, Wyoming and the federal government, approved in 1949. <br />
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