University of Colorado Law Review Volume 55 Issue 3 Spring 1984

• Description: Plans and Studies: The Recent Quest for a Utopia in the Utilization of Colorado's Water Resources
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Other

1984] COLORADO'S WATER RESOURCES 397
by the early 1950's the first water was delivered through the Conti-
nental Divide by a major federal reclamation project to cities and
farmers in Northern Colorado.
This framework of a conservancy district, aided by the state
water board, with the basin of origin protected by a different water
district, was used for the Colorado Big Thompson Project, and was a
response to the rapidly expanding federal reclamation program.
The Boulder Canyon Act, with its resulting Hoover Dam and
All-American Canal, was probably the first major federal reclama-
tion project to affect Colorado directly.41 The federal Flood Control
Acts of 1944 and 1946 authorized extensive construction in the Mis-
souri River Basin and included authorization for the Narrows Reser-
voir near Fort Morgan.4a Authorized by the Flood Control Act of
1936 the John Martin Dam, on the Arkansas River, was built for
flood control.48 Earlier, Elephant Butte Dam had been authorized
and was constructed on the Rio Grande River in New Mexico 44
But the most extensive federal reclamation planning affecting
Colorado was going forward in the Upper Colorado River Basin.4b
The legislative fight leading up to the Colorado River Storage Pro-
ject Act of 1956 was a forerunner of the era Colorado is now in. A
large dam at Echo Park, in Northwestern Colorado at the confluence
of the Green and Yampa Rivers, was originally part of the Bureau
of Reclamation's proposed development for the Upper Colorado
River Basin. A highly pitched effort was successfuly mounted to de-
lete Echo Park as a storage project.46 Today, rafters float down the
Green and Yampa Rivers in Dinosaur National Monument because
of this effort.
In the years after 1956, the Bureau of Reclamation built Flam-
ing Gorge, Curecanti, Glen Canyon and Navajo Dams. They were to
produce power revenues that would allow smaller reclamation
41. Boulder Canyon Project Act, 43 U.S.C. §§ 617-617(u)(1980).
42. See 1944 U.S. CONG.SERVICE 887 and 1946 U.S.CONG.SERVICE 608,for a read-
ily available text of the Acts.
43. Flood Control Act of 1936,Pub.L.No.74-738,49 Stat. 1570(1936)(codified at 33
U.S.C. §§ 701a-701f, 710h (1976)); See the Arkansas River Compact, COLO. REV. STAT. §
37-69-101 (1973), for its role on the Arkansas River in Colorado.
44. Pub. L. No. 58-104, 33 Stat. 814 (1905) authorized what became known as Ele-
phant Butte, which took on special significance for Colorado when an actual or hypothetical
spill at Elephant Butte affected Colorado's deficit under the Rio Grande Compact.See Coto.
REV. STAT. § 37-66-101, art. VI (1973).
45. See I COLO.WATER CONS. BD.,FEDERAL-STATE WATER RESOURCE PLANNING DE-
VELOPMENT IN COLO. (1959).
46. See 1956 U.S. CODE CONG. & AD. NEWS 2406-10.