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000153 46 The plan provides for stage development of the water salvage features to provide assurance to San Luis Valley irrigators and interests that pumpmg of the shallow ground waters does not adversely affect ground-water conditions in the Valley. The plan contemplates that construction, operation, and mainte- nance of the water salvtlge features would be nonreimbursable Federal expenses. Both the States of Colorado and New ~Iexico have strongly endorsed thisJlosition and cite the 1906 Treaty with the United States of ~Iexico an the Rio Grande Compact of 1929 as authority for this position. Article II of the 1929 Compact a....;; approved by Cong-ress by the act of June 17, 1930, is quoted: "The States of Colorado, New ~lcxico, und Texas hereby declare: "(a) That they recognize the paramouJlt right and dut.y of the United States, in the interests of internationul peRce and hurmony, to determine and settle international controversies llnd claims by treaty, and that when those purposes are ut'-complished by that means the treaty becomes the supreme law of the Nation; Il(b) That since the benefits which flow from tlH:_~ \,,.'ise exercise of that authority und the just perforrnancB of that duty ace-rue to all the people, it follows R..'i a corollary thnt the Nation should defrny the ('ost of the discharge of any obligation thus Hssulllt'd; l/(c) That with respect to the Rio Grunde, the United Stntes, with- out obligation imposed by international law and 'bt"'ing moved by considerations of mternational comity,' entered into a trenty dat.ed May 21, 1906 (Thirty-fourth Statutes, page 2953), with the United States of ~lexico which obligated the Unit.ed States of America to deliver from the Rio Grande to the United States of ~rexi('o sixty thousand acre-feet of water nnnually and forever, whereby in order t~) fulfill that promise the United States of Americll, in effect, drew upon the States of Colorado. New ~I(~xico, and Texas a draft worth to them many millions of dollars, and thereby there was cast upon them an obligation which should be horn~ by the Nation; "(d) That for the economic dov(\lopment and conservation of the waters of the Rio Grande Ba."in and for the fullest reulization of the purposes recitt.d in the preamble to this compnct it is of primary im- portance that the area in Colorado known 11...';; the Closed BaSin be drained and the water thus recovt'red be added to the flow of the river, and that a reservoir be constructed in Colorado upon the river n.t or near t.lw site generally described as the State Line R~'s('fvoir site. The installation of the drain will lll11terially augment the flow of the river, and the construction of th(' res{'n~oir will so rt'gulate the flow as to remove forever the principlll cnuses of the difficu!tirs between the Stutes signntory hereto: und lI(e) That in alle\.-1ation of the hell'.Y burden so placed upon them it is the earnest conviction of thf'se Stut('~ that without cost to t.hem the United States should construct the Closed Basin drain and the State Line Resen.oir described in parngraph (d). "The signatory States ugree that llpproyul by Congress of this compact shall n~t be construed as constituting un acceptance or approval, directly, indirectly, or impliedly, of any statement or conclusion appearing in this artidc." A firm forecast of t.he period of time thnt would be required for Colorado to achieve debit-free status under the Compact by delivery of salvaged \",-aters to the Rio Gnlllde cannot be made. However, on