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After the Compact came discussions over who would build and pay for these works. Possible ... candidates included the federal government, the irrigators, power customers, or private entities. .. Additionally, the states worried over their respective jurisdictional responsibilities, and the authority of the Federal Power Commission, if a major dam were to be constructed by a private entity. This debate did serve to make one fact perfectly clear: the construction and operation of any major facility on the Colorado River was too big, and the international and interstate issues too complex, for anyone other than the federal government to undertake.22 The federal government did undertake this responsibility in 1928, when the Boulder Canyon Project Act23 authorized the construction of Hoover Dam and the All-American Canal. As the states would later see in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Arizona v. Califomia,24 the Boulder Canyon Project Act also represented a major step by Congress in the imposition of federal authority (albeit with the consent and in coordination with the states), in the allocation, regulation and operation of the Colorado River. Although the state representatives agreed on the terms of the Colorado River Compact in 1922, the ratification of that pact by each of the Seven Basin States proved to be a monumental undertaking. Again, the states required the aid of the federal government. By 1928, when Congress passed the Boulder Canyon Project Act, only four of the seven states had ratified the Compact. 25 Arizona was particularly adamant in its opposition to the Compact. Congress recognized, therefore, that it was not enough simply to authorize construction of the dam. There was also the need to establish an orderly means to cany out the distribution and allocation of water, but not to foreclose the ability of the Upper Basin to fully develop its share of the River. Therefore, the Act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to undertake a broad feasibility study of water and power projects throughout the Basin, "and of ... formulating a comprehensive scheme of control and the improvement and utilization of the water of the .. Colorado River and its tributaries."2' To bypass recalcitrant Arizona, the effectiveness of the Boulder Canyon Project Act was contingent upon California limiting itself to total water consumption from the Colorado River of 4.4 maf per year, and upon ratification of the Compact by any six states, including California." California almost immediately passed the California Limitation Act" and ratified the Compact. Ratification by Utah soon followed, and the Boulder Canyon Project Act became effective." Soon after, in the 1931 California Seven Party Agreement, the major California entities agreed among themselves on the priorities within California. 22Hundley, Pages 113-137. 23Act of December 21, 1928, ch. 42, 45 Stat. 1057. 24373 U.S. 546 (1963). "Hundley, Page 276. 2645 Stat. 1057, ~16, 2745 Stat. 1057, ~4(a). "Chap. 16, Calif. Stats. 1929, p. 38. e 2"Hundley, Page 281.