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<br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />Supreme Court decision in the Arizona vs. Cali- <br />fornia case. <br /> <br />You will recall that at our meeting in <br />Craig we asked the attorney for the Board and <br />the Director to analyze the Arizona-California <br />decision further as concerns whether intervention <br />was desirable or feasible, what further implica- <br />tions they could arrive at at the present status <br />of the case as to its effect on Colorado. !-Jr. <br />Noses is not here today but I am sure that !-Jr. <br />Sparks is ready to report to some extent on that <br />item. !-Jr. Sparks." <br /> <br />!-JR. SPARKS: <br /> <br />"Gentlemen, under date of August 21st, we <br />sent to you a memorandum giving a brief explana- <br />tion of our interpretation of the decision in the <br />Arizona vs. California case. I consulted with <br />!-Jr. Dunbar, the Attorney General, !-Jr. Geissinger, <br />his Assistant (who is here today), and !-Jr. Moses, <br />out attorney. !-Jr. Moses is on vacation at the <br />present time. <br /> <br />The case was very perplexing and I think <br />that everyone who read it realizes this. How- <br />ever, since the court stated several times that <br />the decision did not apply to the Upper Basin <br />and did not involve an interpretation of the <br />Compact as far as the upper Basin was concerned, <br />there does not seem to be any grounds for us to <br />attempt to intervene. I doubt if we could <br />legally do so in any event, since we were ori- <br />ginally a party to this suit and withdrew. <br /> <br />There has been a lot of comment about the <br />authority vested in the Secretary of the Interior <br />to apportion shortages among the Lower Basin <br />states. From a purely theoretical viewpoint, <br />this is disturbing. Nevertheless, it does not <br />apply to the Upper Basin. In the Upper Basin our <br />compact provides, specifically provides, for the <br />allocation among the states in times of shortages. <br />The Lower Basin, of course, had no compact and it <br />was necessary for the Supreme Court to determine <br />how the water could be divided. So whether we <br />like it or not, as far as the authority invested <br />