PUB00105

• Year: 1999
• Title: Conference Proceedings: 24th Annual Gunnison Water Workshop
• CWCB Section: Administration
• Description: Theme of the workshop was Garden of Dreams v. High-Desert Reality
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

XII.

Interstate Compacts and Equitable Apportionment Decrees

A. Colorado is a party to nine interstate compacts and three equitable apportionment
decrees. An "interstate compact" is a negotiated agreement between two or more
states and the United States allocating the water of interstate streams and is a law in
ea.ch of the signatory states and the United States. An equitable apportionment
decree is a US. Supreme Court decision that allocates water between states in the
absence of an interstate compact.

B. Colorado River Compact (1922): C.R.S. 9 37-61-101, et seq.

1. Allocates the waters of the Colorado River between the Upper and Lower
Division states. The Lower Basin includes those parts of Arizona, California,
Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah below Lee Ferry, Arizona. The Upper Basin
includes those parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming
above Lee Ferry. The Lower Division states are Arizona, California, and
Nevada. The Upper Division states are Colorado, New Mexico, Utah; and
Wyoming.

2. Allocates 7,500,000 acre-feet of consumptive use per annum to each of the
two basins, with the Upper Basin required to deliver 75 million acre-feet of
water at Lee Ferry during any ten consecutive year period.

3. The Rio Grande, Colorado, and Tijuana Treaty of 1944 between the United
States and Mexico guarantees delivery of 1,500,000 acre-feet of Colorado
River water per year to Mexico from the Colorado River. If there is not
adequate surplus water for delivery, the Upper and Lower Basins are to share
equally the burden of fulfilling any deficiencies.

C. Upper Colorado River Basin Compact (1948): C.RS. 9 37-62-101, et seq.

1. Apportions waters of the Upper Colorado River Basin which were allocated
in the Colorado River Compact of 1922.

2. Arizona is entitled to 50,000 acre-feet, and the other states are allocated the
following percentages ofthe remainder;

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