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<br />O()2215 <br /> <br />ARIZONA v. CALIFORNIA. <br /> <br />41 <br /> <br />conclusion was based on the Master's reasoning that the <br />Secretary was given physical control over the waters <br />stored in Lake Mead and not over waters before they <br />reached the lake. <br />We hold that the Master was correct in deciding that <br />the Secretary cannot reduce water deliveries to Arizona <br />and Nevada by the amount of their uses from tributaries <br />above Lake Mead, for, as we have held, Congress in the <br />Project Act intended to apportion only the mainstream, <br />leaving tO'each State its own tributaries. We disagree, <br />however, with the Master's holding that the Secretary is <br />powerless to charge States for diversions from the main- <br />stream above Lake Mead. What Congress was doing in <br />the Project Act was providing for an apportionment <br />among the Lower Basin States of the water allocated to <br />that basin by the Colorado River Compact. The Lower <br />Basin, with which Congress, was dealing, begins at Lee <br />Ferry, and it was all the water in the mainstream below <br />Lee Ferry that Congress intended to divide among the <br />States. Were we to refuse the Secretary the power to <br />charge States for diversions from the mainstream between <br />Lee Ferry and the dam site, we would allow individual <br />States, by making diversions that deplete the Lower <br />Basin's allocation, to upset the whole plan of apportion- <br />ment arrived at by Congress to settle the long-standing <br />dispute in the Lower Basin. That the congressional ap- <br />portionment scheme would be upset can easily be demon- <br />strated. California, for example, has been allotted <br />4,400,000 acre-feet of mainstream water. If Arizona and <br />Nevada can, without being charged for it, divert water <br />from the river above Lake Mead, then California could <br />not get the share Congress intended her to have. <br />B. Nevada Contract.-Nevada has excepted to her in- <br />clusion in Paragraph II (B) (7) of the Master's recom- <br />mended decree, which provides that "mainstream water <br />shall be delivered to users in Arizona, California and Ne- <br />