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<br />002176 <br /> <br />2 <br /> <br />ARIZONA v. CALIFORNIA. . <br /> <br />"subject to consideration, revision, or approval by the <br />Court." · The Master conducted a trial lasting from <br />June 14, 1956, to August 28, 1958, during whicl). 340 wit- <br />nesses were heard orally or by deposition, thousands of <br />exhibits were received, and 25,000 pages of transcript were <br />filled. Following many motions, arguments, and briefs, <br />the Master in a 433-page volume reported his findings, <br />conclusions, and recommended decree, received by the <br />Court on January 16,1961.5 The case has been extensively <br />briefed here and orally argued twice, the first time about <br />16 hours, the second, over six. As we see this case, the <br />question of each State's share of the waters of the Colo- <br />rado and its tributaries turns on the meaning and the scope <br />of the Boulder Canyon Project Act passed by Congress in <br />1928.6 That meaning and scope can be better understood <br />when the Act is set against its background-the gravity <br />of the Southwest's water problems; the inability of local <br />groups or individual States to deal with these enormous <br />problems; the cOl1tinued failure of the States to agree <br />on how to conserve and divide the waters; and the <br />ultimate action by Congress at the request of the States <br />creating a great system of dams and public works <br />nationally built, controlled, and operated for the purpose <br />of conserving and distributing the water. <br />The Colorado River itself rises in the mountains of <br />Colorado and flows generally in a southwesterly direction <br />for about 1,300 miles through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona <br />and along the Arizona-Nevada and Arizona-California <br />boundaries, after which it passes into Mexico and empties <br />into the Mexican waters of the Gulf of California. On <br />its way to the sea it receives tributary waters from Wyo- <br />ming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona. <br /> <br />· The two orders are reported at 347 U. S. 986 (1954), and 350 <br />U. S. 812 (1955). . <br />s 364 U. S. 940 (1961), <br />5 Boulder Canyon Project Act, 45 Stat. 1057 (1928),43 U. S. C. <br />~~ 617-617t (1958). <br />