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<br />the Boulder Canyon Project Act however. the secre- <br />tary of the Interior requested that the state prioritize <br />its rights to Colorado River water among the major <br />users. The California Seven-Party Agreement, <br />signed in August 1931, established in broad catego- <br />ries how much water each of the major entities in <br />southern California could use (see page 21). <br /> <br />Conflict between Arizona and California continued <br />after Hoover Dam and the All-American Canal were <br />completed. In the early 1930s. Arizona made three <br />unsuccessful appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court to <br />resolve the states' differences. Arizona's water <br />policies changed in the late 19308, when it became <br />necessary for it to purchase power from Hoover Dam <br />forthe first time. In 1944. Arizona ratified the compact <br />and began seeking its own federal project to bring <br />Colorado River water to the Phoenix and Tucson <br />areas. <br /> <br />In the Upper Basin, projects authorized for study in <br />the Boulder Canyon Project Act were blocked until <br />the tour states determined their individual rights. In <br />1948. these states entered into the Upper Colorado <br />River Basin Compact. The Compact apportioned <br />percentages of the available river flow to the <br />individual Upper Basin states and 50.000 acre-feet <br />of the Upper Basin water supply to Arizona. The <br />agreement also established the Upper Colorado <br />River Commission to oversee the interests of the <br />Upper Basin states. <br /> <br />The first Upper Basin projects authorization bill to <br />be approved by Congress passed in 1956 and is <br />known as the Colorado River Storage Project Act. It <br />authorized Glen Canyon Dam to be built just above <br />Lee's Ferry. Ariz. - the compact dividing point - near <br />the Arizona-Utah border. It also authorized the <br />Central Utah Project (CUP) and a total at 11 projects <br />in Wyoming. Colorado and New Mexico. <br /> <br />Meanwhile. Arizona's bid for a federally built <br />aqueduct to carry water to Phoenix and Tucson, first <br />proposed in the late 1940s, stalled. Congress would <br />not approve the Central Arizona Project (CAP) until <br />the state's share of the Colorado River was <br />determined. Consequently. Arizona sued California <br />in 1951 to resolve the issue. In 1963. the Supreme <br />Court (in a controversial decision) decided the 1928 <br />Boulder Canyon Project Act empowered the <br />secretary of the Interior to implement the Lower Basin <br />apportionment of mainstem water and to determine <br />how future shortages should be apportioned among <br />the states. This controversial decree advanced for <br />the first time the view that Congress had apportioned <br />the Lower Colorado River and empowered the <br /> <br /> <br />secretary to implement the apportionment by execut- <br />ing water delivery contracts within the Lower Basin <br />states. The court's decree gave Arizona control over <br />its main tributary, the Gila River. which it had failed <br />to obtain in the initial compact negotiations. It also <br />cleared the way for the construction of Ihe CAP. <br />authorized by Congress In 1968 and substantially <br />completed in the early 1990s. <br /> <br />The court's 1964 decree ullimately <br />set California's annual Colorado <br />River apportionment in normal <br />years (years when 7.5 million acre- <br />feet of water are available to the <br />mainstem users in the Lower <br />Basin) at 4.4 million acre-feet plus <br />one-half of any surplus water - <br />reducing the dependable water <br />supply from 5.3 million acre-feet <br />California earlier believed it had. <br />Arizona's basic apportionment is <br />2.8 million acre.feet annually and 46 percent of any <br />surplus. Nevada's basic apportionment is 300.000 <br />acre-feet annually and 4 percent of any surplus. <br />California's use has varied between 4.5 million acre- <br />feel and 5.2 million acre-feet since 1985. relying on <br />Arizona and Nevada's unused apportionment and <br />beginning in 1996, on surplus determinations. <br />Recent actions have been taken to reduce <br />California's overuse of the river (see page 21). <br /> <br />Throughout the years of negotiations over Colorado <br />River water allocations and rights, the river's <br />tributaries also were developed. In some cases, <br />tributaries were developed more readily and with less <br />controversy than the Colorado River itself. Some. <br />times, the tributary projects were simply tacked onto <br />larger Colorado River projects. For example. with <br />the 1968 CAP legislation, Colorado gained <br />authorization of five small water projects on tributary <br />rivers; in New Mexico, the promise of a new dam; <br />and in Utah, two water projects. <br /> <br />In other situations, tributary projects have been <br />authorized for years but have not been built because <br />of political, environmental and. sometimes, economic <br />pressures. Aulhorized in the late 1960s. the Animas. <br />La Plata Project near Durango. Colo. has not been <br />built. stymied by such issues as Indian waler rights, <br />economic feasibility and environmental concerns <br />(see page 22). Other authorized but unbuill projects <br />include Fruitland Mesa and San Miguel in Colorado. <br />The Central Utah Project, planned for completion in <br />2005. will take over 100,000 acre.feet of water out <br />of Colorado River Basin streams in eastern Utah <br />annually and transport it west for farm and city use. <br /> <br />Herher! Hoon'r (seated) <br />ami delegafcs fm11/ the <br />seren basin s!ates at the <br />signing oj the Colorado <br />Ri,'cr Compact in Bishop'5 <br />Lodge. Ne~I' Mexico, on <br />Nm'el1lher 24, 1922. <br /> <br />9 <br />