Laserfiche WebLink
<br />002041 <br /> <br />44 <br /> <br />ASSEMBLY !NTERIM COMMITTEE ON WAT~R <br /> <br />the Gila enter the Colorado almost at the Mexican border, but also in <br />dry seasons it virtually evaporates before reaching the Colorado." r. <br /> <br />Former Attorney General Mosk has commented: <br /> <br />There is no question about it, we lost the tributary issue, and I <br />have not recommended that we ask Congress to reverse that de- <br />cision. There has been little disposition on the part of other Cali- <br />fornians to do so. 5. <br /> <br />The court, by refusing to interpret the compact (Decree, Arizona v. <br />California, Article XIII (D) ) and by concluding tributaries were ex- <br />cluded from the apportionment under the project act, has created un- <br />certainty as to accounting between the upper and lower basins for the <br />Mexican Treaty burden. Resolution of this problem can only be deter- <br />mined by legislation interpreting the compact. 'l'here appears to be <br />substantial Upper Basin sentiment in opposition to the court's decision <br />on this issue. Significantly enough, the report of the Senate Committee <br />on Interior and Insular Affairs transmitting S. 1658, the Goldberg <br />Amendment, favorably to the Senate floor included a minority report <br />by three Senators (all members of the committee), Gordon Allott and <br />Peter Dominick from Colorado, and Milward Simpson from Wyoming. <br />These gentlemen pointed out in their minority statement: <br /> <br />The net affect of all apportionments is to place a draft upon the <br />Colorado River of 17.5 million acre-feet annually. This amount of <br />water is simply not available from the Colorado ltiver if the <br />Lower Basin tributaries are excluded. The Lower Basin tribu- <br />taries produce, on the average, about 3 million acre-feet of water <br />annually. The compact apportions the waters of "Colorado River <br />System" not just the mainstream. Therefore, surpluses as they <br />pertain to the apportionment of the waters of the" Colorado River <br />System" between the basins require an accounting of waters of <br />the whole Colorado River System in the Upper Basin as well as an <br />accounting of waters of the whole Colorado River System in the <br />Lower Basin. . . . If the Lower Basin tributaries are excluded, <br />then the Upper Basin, in almost every year, will have to deliver <br />additional water to satisfy the Mexican Treaty. "We feel com- <br />pelled to oppose the enactment of this bill [So 1658] unless an <br />aIT!endment including tributary flows is adopted." G <br /> <br />In addition to this minority report Senator Clinton P. Anderson and <br />Senator Edwin L. Mechem, both members of the committee and U.S. <br />Senators from New Mexico attached individual views to tbe committee <br />report stating: <br /> <br />We are therefore, sympathetic to language that would amend this <br />bill in order to provide for assurance of an accounting of the <br /> <br />510 L.Ed. 2d 560, vote 40. <br />15m Stanley Mask "Oalifornia's Water Crisis. . . A Time for D6cision/' address before <br />Town Hall, Los Angeles, July 7, 1964. at 5. <br />o V,S. Senate~ 88th Congress. 2d Session, Report 18."10, at 30. <br />