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OVERVIEW OF THE RIO GRANDE COMPACT COLORADO PERSPECTIVES Historv and PUTDose The Rio Grande Compact was signed on March 18, 1938, by the three Commissioners representing each of the signatory states Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, and by the Federal Commissioner on behalf of the United States. This Compact brought to end the long and contentious period of disagreement over the use of the water supplies of the Rio Grande basin in the three states above Fl. Quitman, Texas. These disagreements date back to the 1890's when Texas and Mexico claimed that upstream development had reduced their water supply. In response to these claims, the United States in 1896 placed an embargo (removed in 1925) on any water development projects on federal lands in New Mexico and Colorado. This action was followed by the signing of the Mexican Treaty in 1906, which provides Mexico with 60,000 acre-feet of water per year. Following this act, Elephant Butte Reservoir was constructed in 1916 as part of the Rio Grande Project with a capacity of 2,638,860 acre-feet. The Rio Grande Project would irrigate 155,000 acres of land below the reservoir in Texas (43 percent oflands) and New Mexico (57 percent oflands). Negotiations between the three states began in 1924 with the intended settlementofthe claims for water from this basin. A temporary compact was signed in 1929 to preserve the status quo while the states negotiated a permanent compact to "equitably apportion the waters of the Rio Grande based On conditions obtaining on the river and within the Rio Grande basin at the time of signing of this Compact." To assist the negotiations, the National Resources Committee and three states agreed to conduct a Joint Investigation to determine the present and future water uses of the basin based on current and anticipated irrigation requirements. The Joint Investigation was conducted in 1936 and 1937 with the final report j: h, "...~