Colorado Water June 2005

• Year: 2005
• Title: Colorado Water
• Author: Water Center of Colorado State University
• Description: JUNE 2005 Issue
• Publications - Doc Type: Newsletter

ETEG' B.
Water for the Upper Basin and Western Slope:
The Colorado River Storage Project of 1956
by Steven C. Schulte
Professor of History, Mesa State College
Presented at Geological Society of America - Rocky Mountain Section Annual Meeting, 2005
When I agreed to write a few remarks for this confer-
ence, I was asked to address aspects of the history of
the twentieth century Upper Basin and Colorado water
infrastructure. So, needing a title, immediately, I chose
the one that is in your programs. Now that the short
paper is written, I will slightly re- tailor my remarks to
the topic of the hydraulic politics of Colorado and the
Upper Basin's water infrastructure.
The major water delivery infrastructure for the Upper
Colorado River Basin was authorized and built in the
twenty years after World War II. The Second World
War represented the turning point in the political and
economic development of the West in general and the
Upper Colorado River basin in particular.
Before this time, the sparsely populated Upper Basin
states could not envision a time when they would be
able to gather enough political clout to begin authoriz-
ing massive reclamation storage projects. It was this
fear, and an equal or greater fear of deep federal in-
volvement in water apportionment that originally drove
Upper Basin water statesmen to suggest, in the World
War I era, a water treaty that resulted in the Colorado
River Compact of 1922. The genesis of the Compact
came from the realization that under Western water
law, California had the political clout to put much of
the West's free flowing water to beneficial use and
this could endanger the future growth of several Upper
Basin states.
Early twentieth century Colorado water attorney Delph
Carpenter hatched the plan to use the U.S. Constitu-
tion's Compact Clause that provided for the negotia-
tion of interstate agreements, subject to Congressional
approval. California had the political clout to put much
of the West's free flowing water to beneficial use and
if that large and growing state could not be limited in
some way, this could endanger the future growth of
several Upper Basin states.I
The Colo-
rado River
Compact
divided
the river's
water into
two basins,
each with
roughly
the same
amount of
available
water. It
required
Steve Schulte, Tonny Willardson and John
McCloud during panel presentation.
the Upper
Basin states to deliver 75 million acre feet to pass by the
division point at Lee's Ferry, Arizona every ten years.
While this is not the place to point out the shortcomings
of the Compact, suffice it to say that the Compact was
based on a much higher annual flow than has actually
materialized in most years, and that the Upper Basin's
obligation to the Lower Basin was a major reason why
the Upper Basin needed to get serious about storing
water after World War II —both for its own economic
growth and to meet its legal obligations to the Lower
Basin regions.'
Last year, I wrote an article for the Citizens Guide to
Colorado's Water Heritage where I stressed the role
of two giants who have shaped Colorado's distinctive
Western Slope political culture— Edward T. Taylor and
Wayne N. Aspinall. I want to spend a little time de-
scribing some of my conclusions where they shed light
on the ultimate construction of the Upper Basin's water
infrastructure. 3
Edward T. Taylor is truly one of the forgotten giants in
Western water and resource history. Born in Illinois in
1858, Taylor ventured to Colorado in 1881 to the rowdy
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