BOARD02551

• Board Meeting Date: 8/11/1965
• Description: Minutes and Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

words, the million in addition to the 7~
million. "

NR. TIPTON:

'''l'here has been, down through the years,
a great deal of controversy about that
million. Not the facts - the facts were that
it did allocate to the Lower Basin one million
but it said it in these terms: the Lower
Basin was given the right to increase its bene-
ficial consumptive use by one million acre-feet.

Now a little background of that history,
how the million came in. At the time the
compact was being negotiated, all of the
compact commissioners' eyes were focused at
Lee Ferry. Lee Ferry was picked as a good
division point between the two basins; as a
bottleneck, a very good division point. So
they decided they would divide up the water
at that point. Various amounts were sug-
gested. One amount was 8,000,000 acre-feet
to each basin. They finally settled on the
7~ million. That was at Lee Ferry. Arizona
wakened up. she said 'Well, now, by defini-
tion the Colorado River system, which in-
cludes all the tributaries - it includes
the Gila River - we're on the Gila River
consuming at least a million acre-feet of
water. l'Ie have to have that recognized' .

That's the way the million acre-feet
came into the picture, but that's not what
the compact says. The only portion of the
compact minutes that is missing is that por-
tion which pertains to the discussion about
the million acre-feet. The only evidence
that exists, except people's words, is a
picture by Hoover, who was the representative
for the United states and was chairman of the
commission, an autographed picture to Norviel,
who was the commissioner from Arizona, which
said 'To my friend, Norviel, for his heroic
effort in getting a million acre-feet recog-
nized. for Arizona'. That's the only evidence."

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