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

to the irrigation system in the upper basin, whereby
deliveries by the upper basin of water which it may be
required to deliver in order to aid in fulfilling
obligations of the United States of America to the
United Mexican States arising under the treaty between
the United States of America and the United Mexican
States, dated February 3, 1944 (Treaty Series 994)
become difficult, and report such findings to the
governors of the upper basin states, the President of the
United States of America, the United States section of
the international boundary and water commission, and
such other federal officials and agencies as it may deem
appropriate to the end that the water allotted to Mexico
under division III of such treaty may be reduced in
accordance with the terms of such treaty;
(11) Acquire and hold such personal and real
property as may be necessary for the performance of its
duties hereunder and to dispose of the same when no
longer required;
(12) Perform all functions required of it by this
compact and do all things necessary, proper or
convenient in the performance of its duties hereunder,
either independently or in co-operation with any state or
federal agency;
(13) Make and transmit annually to the
governors of the signatory states and the President of
the United States of America, with the estimated budget,
a report covering the activities of the commission for
the preceding water year.
( e) Except as otherwise provided in this
compact the concurrence of four members of the
commission shall be required in any action taken by it.
(f) The commission and its secretary shall
make available to the governor of each of the signatory
states any information within its possession at any time,
and shall always provide free access to its records by the
governors of each of the states, or their representatives
or authorized representatives of the United States of
America.
(g) Findings of fact made by the commission
shall not be conclusive in any court, or before any
agency or tribunal, but shall constitute prima facie
evidence of the facts found.
(h) The organization meeting of the
commission shall be held within four months from the
effective date of this compact.

Article IX
(a) No state shall deny the right of the United
States of America and, subject to the conditions
hereinafter contained, no state shall deny the right of
another signatory state, any person, or entity of any
signatory state to acquire rights to the use of water, or to
construct or participate in the construction and use of
diversion works and storage reservoirs with appurtenant
works, canals and conduits in one state for the purpose
of diverting, conveying, storing, regulating and
releasing water to satisfy the provisions of the Colorado
river compact relating to the obligation of the states of
the upper division to make deliveries of water at Lee

ferry, or for the purpose of diverting, conveying, storing
or regulating water in an upper signatory state for
consumptive use in a lower signatory state, when such
use is within the apportionment to such lower state
made by this compact. Such rights shall be subject to
the rights of water users, in a state in which such
reservoir or works are located, to receive and use water,
the use of which is within the apportionment to such
state by this compact.
(b) Any signatory state, any person or any
entity of any signatory state shall have the right to
acquire such property rights as are necessary to the use
of water in conformity with this compact in any other
signatory state by donation, purchase or through the
exercise of the power of eminent domain. Any
signatory state, upon the written request of the governor
of any other signatory state, for the benefit of whose
water users property is to be acquired in the state to
which such written request is made, shall proceed
expeditiously to acquire the desired property either by
purchase at a price satisfactory to the requesting state,
or, if such purchase cannot be made, then through the
exercise of its power of eminent domain and shall
convey such property to the requesting state or such
entity as may be designated by the requesting state;
provided, that all costs of acquisition and expenses of
every kind and nature whatsoever incurred in obtaining
the requested property shall be paid by the requesting
state at the time and in the manner prescribed by the
state requested to acquire the property.
(c) Should any facility be constructed in a
signatory state by and for the benefit of another
signatory state or states or the water users thereof, as
above provided, the consnuction, repair, replacement,
maintenance and operation of such facility shall be
subject to the laws of the state in which the facility is
located, except that, in the case of a reservoir
constructed in one state for the benefit of another state
or states, the water administration officials of the state
in which the facility is located shall permit the storage
and release of any water which, as determined by
findings of the commission, falls within the
apportionment of the state or states for whose benefit
the facility is constructed. In the case of a regulating
reservoir for the j oint benefit of all states in making Lee
ferry deliveries, the water administration officials of the
state in which the facility is located, in permitting the
storage and release of water, shall comply with the
findings and orders of the commission.
(d) In the event property is acquired by a
signatory state in another signatory state for the use and
benefit of the former, the users of water made available
by such facilities, as a condition precedent to the use
thereof, shall pay to the political subdivisions of the
state in which such works are located, each and every
year during which such rights are enjoyed for such
purposes, a sum of money equivalent to the average
annual amount of taxes levied and assessed against the
land and improvements thereon during the ten years
preceding the acquisition of such land. Said payments
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