BOARD01417 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

The Concerns of the Upper Basin in the Development of the Law of the River e The "Law of the River," refers to a compilation of the 1922 Colorado River Compact, the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944, the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, several United States Supreme Court decisions and the Decree in Arizona v. California, and a host of federal laws and administrative regulations. The Law of the River represents a comprehensive system of allocation, operation, and regulation that developed out of practical need and public policy. The development of the Colorado River, and the initiation of federal involvement in the River, began when the early irrigation of the Imperial Valley in California entailed a canal route through Mexico. This required the cooperation of the Mexican government, and implicated international relations between the United States and Mexico.l Desire for an "All-American Canal" to the Imperial Valley grew, and led to discussion and debate over the need also to construct large storage facilities on the Colorado River. Irrigation interests on the lower river clamored for construction of a large dam on the to reduce the threat of floods, such as those which occurred in 1905-1907, inundating the Imperial Valley and creating the Salton Sea.' Comments offederal employees and commentators, such as John Wesley Powell, Richard J. Hinton, and Arthur Powell Davis, further fueled the debate. They argued as early as 1878 for federal control over the comprehensive development of the Colorado River.' The need for coordination in the development of the River also became apparent in the development of slightly different legal doctrines in each of the Western States. These doctrines resulted from interstate disputes, and were exacerbated by the assertion of federal authority over interstate waters. Colorado litigated three interstate disputes in the United States Supreme Court involving interstate waters--Kansas v. Colorado I and 11,4 and Wyoming v. Colorado.' e In 1920, bolstered by government claims there was plenty of water in the Colorado River for all foreseeable uses, the involved interests finally achieved consensus through an organization known as the League of the Southwest. The League urged Congress to construct an All-American Canal and necessary Lower Basin flood control storage on the Colorado River.' However, the Upper Basin was anxious over the potential rate of development in the Lower Basin, and that the water supply forecasts of the federal government were unreasonably optimistic.7 The decision in Wyoming v. Colorado heightened this concern. The Upper Basin was afraid that the Lower Basin could use that decision to obtain permanent preferential rights to water simply by developing lNorris Hundley, Jr., Water and the West, University of California Press, 1975. Pages 22-3. 'Id., Pages 27, 45-52. 'Id., Pages 8-9. 4185 U.S. 143 (1902) and 206 U.S. 46 (1907). 5259 U.S. 429 (1922). , Id., Pages 90-93. e 7 Id., Pages 96-97.