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

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(2) Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, after deduction
of Arizona's 50,000 acre-feet: Colorado, 51.75 percent, New Mexico,
11.25 percent, Utah, 23 percent, and Wyoming, 14 percent.

Article III(b)3 provides that no state shall exceed its apportioned
use in any year when such use deprives another state of its water during
that year. Curtailment in use of water apportioned is to be determined
by the Commission'. The Commission is to determine and allocate
losses of water a~ a result of reservoir storage. The Upper Colorado
River Commission is created as an interstate administrative agency
and its duties are defined by Article VIII of the Compact. The
Compact is not to interfere with the right or power of any state
to regulate within its boundaries the appropriation, use, and control
of water apportioned to such state. The failure of any state to use
water shall not constitute a relinquishment or a forfeiture of the
right to use that water. Article XIX provides that the obligation
of the United States to the Indian tribes, the Mexican Treaty or
any rights of the United States to acquire waters in the Upper
Colorado River System are not to be affected.

The Boulder Canyon Project Act has been interpreted by the Supreme
Court of the United States in litigation involving Lower Basin
States. In Arizona v. California, 377 U.S. 546 (1963), the Supreme
Court ruled that "Congress, in passing the Boulder Canyon Project
Act," intended to and did create its own comprehensive scheme for
apportionment among the three Lower Basin States of the water of
the Colorado River. The Court also stated that, "while the Secretary
must follow the standards set out in the Act, he, nevertheless, is
free to choose among the recognized methods of apportionment or to
devise reasonable methods of his own."

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The Colorado River Storage Project Act of April 11, 1956 (75 Stat.
105) provides for the development of the resources of the Upper
Basin and makes it possible for the Upper Basin States to use their
apportionment. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to
construct the initial storage units for mainstem regulation and to
construct certain participating projects in the Upper Basin States.
The Act requires in the operation and maintenance of all facilities
under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior in the basin
of the Colorado River, that the Secretary comply with the Colorado
River Compact, the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, the Boulder
Canyon Project Act, the Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act, and
the Treaty with the United Mexican States. The Act has been amended
on several occasions to authorize the construction of additional
participating projects and alter the schedule of investigation of
future projects.

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