Colorado Water Conservation Handbook

• Year: 2004
• Title: CWCB Board Member Handbook
• CWCB Section: Administration
• Author: CWCB
• Description: Handbook containing phone numbers, addresses, statutes, rules, policies, straegic plans and Board member work plans.
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

basin under the Colorado river compact and remaining
after the deduction of the use, not to exceed 50,000
acre-feet per annum, made in the state of Arizona.
State of Colorado 51.75 per cent,
State of New Mexico 11.25 per cent,
State of Utah 23.00 per cent,
State of Wyoming 14.00 per cent.
(b) The apportionment made to the respective
states by paragraph (a) of this article is based upon, and
shall be applied in conformity with, the following
principles and each of them:
(1) The apportionment is of any and all man-
made depletions;
(2) Beneficial use is the basis, the measure and
the limit of the right to use;
(3) No state shall exceed the apportioned use
in any water year when the effect of such excess use, as
determined by the commission, is to deprive another
signatory state of its apportioned use during the water
year; provided, that this subparagraph (b) (3) shall not
be construed as:
(i) Altering the apportionment of use, or
obligations to make deliveries as provided in article XI,
XII, XIII or XIV of this compact;
(ii) Purporting to apportion among the
signatory states of such uses of water as the upper basin
may be entitled to under paragraphs (f) and (g) of article
III of the Colorado river compact; or
(iii) Countenancing average uses by any
signatory state in excess of its apportionment.
(4) The apportionment to each state includes
all water necessary for the supply of any rights which
now exist.
(c) No apportionment is hereby made, or
intended to be made of such use of water as the upper
basin may be entitled to under paragraphs (f) and (g) of
article III of the Colorado river compact.
(d) The apportionment made by this article
shall not be taken as any basis for the allocation among
the signatory states of any benefits resulting from the
generation of power.

Article IV
In the event curtailment of use of water by the
states of the upper division at any time shall become
necessary in order that the flow at Lee ferry shall not be
depleted below that required by article III of the
Colorado river compact, the extent of curtailment by
each state of the consumptive use of water apportioned
to it by article III of this compact shall be in such
quantities and at such times as shall be determined by
the commission upon the application of the following
principles:
(a) The extent and times of curtailment shall
be such as to assure full compliance with article III of
the Colorado river compact;
(b) If any state or states of the upper division,
in the ten years immediately preceding the water year in
which curtailment is necessary, shall have
consumptively used more water than it was or they

were, as the case may be, entitled to use under the
apportionment made by article III of this compact, such
state or states shall be required to supply at Lee ferry a
quantity of water equal to its, or the aggregate of their,
overdraft or the proportionate part of such overdraft, as
may be necessary to assure compliance with article III
of the Colorado river compact, before demand is made
on any other state of the upper division:
(c) Except as provided in subparagraph (b) of
this article, the extent of curtailment by each state of the
upper division of the consumptive use of water
apportioned to it by article III of this compact shall be
such as to result in the delivery at Lee ferry of a quantity
of water which bears the same relation to the total
required curtailment of use by the states of the upper
division as the consumptive use of the upper Colorado
river system water which was made by each such state
during the water year immediately preceding the year in
which the curtailment becomes necessary bears to tl1e
total consumptive use of such water in the states of the
upper division during the same water year; provided,
that in determining such relation the uses of water under
rights perfected prior to November 24, 1922, shall be
excluded.

Article V
(a) All losses of water occurring from or as the
result of the storage of water in reservoirs constructed
prior to the signing of this compact shall be charged to
the state in which such reservoir or reservoirs are
located. Water stored in reservoirs covered by this
paragraph (a) shall be for the exclusive use of and shall
be charged to the state in which the reservoir or
reservoirs are located.
(b) All losses of water occurring from or as a
result of the storage of water in reservoirs constructed
after the signing of this compact shall be charged as
follows:
(1) If the commission finds that the reservoir is
used, in whole or in part, to assist the states of the upper
division in meeting their obligations to deliver water at
Lee ferry imposed by article III oftl1e Colorado river
compact, the commission shall make [mdings, which in
no event shall be contrary to the laws of the United
States of America under which any reservoir is
constructed, as to the reservoir capacity allocated for
that purpose. The whole or that proportion, as the case
may be, of reservoir losses as found by the commission
to be reasonably and properly chargeable to the
reservoir or reservoir capacity utilized to assure
deliveries at Lee ferry shall be charged to the states of
the upper division in the proportion which the
consumptive use of water in each state of the upper
division during the water year in which the charge is
made bears to the total consumptive use of water in all
states of the upper division during the same water year.
Water stored in reservoirs or in reservoir capacity
covered by this subparagraph (b) (1) shall be for the
common benefit of all of the states of the upper
division.

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