WSPC00167

• File Number: 8040.950
• Description: Section D General Studies - General Water Studies
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 7/1/1974
• Title: Report on Water for Energy in the Upper Colorado River Basin
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

001576

energy development in the Basin and that considerable efforts have
already been undertaken by many of those seeking to exploit energy
resources to obtain the necessary water rights. ,

For developers to have assurance of dependable water supply, they
will either have to utilize water rights with suitable priority dates
they already own, purchase existing priority rights from'others or
purchase water from Federal water marketing agencies (e.g., Reclamation).
Conversely, dependable water supplies will generally not be available
under assertions of current priority dates.

Law of River-Compacts, etc. - The amount of water available for energy
resource development in the Colorado River Basin is limited by the
laws of the Colorado River. The Colorado River is perhaps. the most
regulated river in the United States, and its utilization is such
that very little usable water now discharges from its mouth into the
Gulf of California. The cornerstone is the Colorado River Compact
of 1922, which the seven Basin states negotiated pursuant to the
Act of August 19, 1921 (42 Stat. 171). This Compact divides the
Colorado River Basin into two parts; i.e., the Upper Basin
and the Lower Basin, separated at a point on the river near the
Utah/Arizona border known as Lee Ferry. Article III (a) apportions
to each basin in perpetuity 7.'5 m.a.L of water per year. Article
III(b) allows the Lower Basin to increase its beneficial consumptive
use by 1 m.a.f. in addition to the apportionment in III(a). Article
III (c) provides that any future Mexican water rights, recognized by
the United States, are to be supplied as provided in the Compact.
Article III (d) obligates the Upper Basin not to deplete the flow
at Lee Ferry below an aggregate of 75 m.a.f. for any period of
10 consecutive years reckoned in continuing progressive series.

In the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944, Mexico is guaranteed an annual
quantity of 1,500,000 a.f. of water from any and all sources. The
water is to be delivered in the limitrophe section of the river
near the international boundary. The Boulder Canyon Project Act
of December 21, 1928, approved the Colorado River Compact of 1922
and provided for the construction of Hoover Dam and the All American
Canal in the Lower Basin. The Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act
of July 19, 1940 (54 Stat. 774), among other things, provided funds
for planning for the use of water in the states of the Upper Division.

.

In 1948 the Upper Basin States entered into a compact to divide the
water of the Upper Basin. Article III (a) apportions among the States
of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming the Colorado River
Compact water:

(1) Arizona, 50,000 a.f.

2