BOARD01858

• Board Meeting Date: 1/12/1967
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

.J.JOO

MR. STAPLETON:

MR. BERTHELSON:

MR. SPARKS:

That is the real story behind section 602
and is the tragedy that befell the upper
Basin in 1922 when the compact was negotiated.
We guaranteed water that wa~no~ in the river
and the guarantee comes from our share. Eventu-
ally we will be in the United states Supreme
Court on this compact. We have not solved I
the Mexican Treaty problem as yet. Unless
the seven states find some other source of
water <t i, a certainty that we will eventu- .
ally wind up in the Supreme Court to try to
determine (1) the Mexican Treaty obligation,
and (2) the equity of the compact which
obviously short-changed the Upper Basin.
It was not a 50-50 split by any means as the
compact actually contemplated."

"Thank you, Larry. Do any members of
the Board have any questions on this agenda
item? II

"Ben, I'd just like to ask Larry one
question about it. projecting this thing
into the future, Larry, isn't it possible
that if this is passed and we are protected
and these reservoirs are filled, at some
future date wouldn't we be in a position to
take advantage of our 75 million entitle-
ment?"

"Yes, perhaps at certain times, Si, if
in fact the flow of the river increases.
Any increase is to our benefit. It's
entirely possible that the Colorado River
at Lee Ferry, instead of producing 14 million
as it has in the last 45 years, will produce
16 or 17 million. Then, under those circum-
stances and perhaps for some periods of
history, we will get our 7~ million, but
right now it does not look promising on a
steady basis.

1

As a matter of fact, we even get in
trouble with 5~ because in the next to the
last year of the study we had pulled Glen
Canyon and the Upper Basin reservoirs down