WSPC05386

• File Number: 8044
• Description: Section "D" General Studies - Compacts - General Writings
• State: NE
• Date: 2/16/1951
• Author: Royce J Tipton
• Title: Interstate Water Compacts - Interstate Water Compacts and their Relationship to Basin Development
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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The Supr~me Court in its decision in the case of Colorado versus
Kansas over the Arkansas River, recognized the value of the compact method and
recommended to the states of Colorado and Kansas that a compact be consummated be-
tween the two states resolvj.ng their differences.

The Supreme Court of the United States has upheld the compact method
for settling interstate water controversies and has decreed that the terms of a
compact transcend the application of internal laws of the states so long as the
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The negotiation of water compacts and international treaties over
water in Western United States has passed through a process of evolution. At the
co~encement of the use of such treaties and compacts, negotiation was carried on
generally by individuals not too conversant with the physical facts concerning the
problem involved. That method has gradually changed to one which, in connection
with a number of the more recent compacts in the West, utilizes competent engin-
eering talent in the for~ of engineering advisory committees to ascertain facts
with respect to stream flows and water uses, and generally to suggest solutions of
the problem.

I shall now go to some of the water use problems which have developed
during the last 60-year period, giv~ng a brief description of the method by which
they were resolved, and a description of the basin development ',rhich has been made
as a result of the settlement.

Exhibit No.1 is an outline map of the western portion of the United
States showing the various states and principal river systems. The states that are
parties to important river compacts are outlined on the mop, and the river systems
that are subject to the pro\~sions of co~pacts and international treaties and
Supreme Court decisions are indicated by symbols.

The problem which developed between the United States and Mexico con-
cerning the uses of the waters of the upper Rio Grande ~,as one of the earliest water
use problems which developed in the West. This problem had been bre,dng for some-
time before the 1890 's, but it finally came to a head in 1895 when r,jexico alleged
that the Juarez Valley, which had been irrigated since the sixteenth century, had
been damaged to the extent of some 030,000,000 by increased depletions of water at
the international dam between El Paso and Juarez, because of increased use of water
by New Mexico and Colorado. The problem vms accentuated by the occurcence of an
extreme drouth period which extended from the early 1890's to 1904. Finally a
Convention between the United States and Mexico was consummated in 1906, which ceded
to Mexico 60,000 acre-feet of water per year in perpetuity, to be delivered at the
international dam in accordance with a certain schedule.

Elephant Butte reservoir with an original capacity of 2,650,000 acre-
feet was constructed and went into operation in 1916, one of its purposes being to
enable the United States to fulfill its treaty obligation to !lexico. An embargo was
placed upon the river by the Secretary of State, which prevented the granting of
rights-of-way for the construction of reservoirs above El Paso.

Fuch development had taken place in New I'exico and Colorado, most of
the Colorado develonment having occurred during the two decades lS70 to 1890. All
of the basic water supplies were appropriated, and a great need for reservoirs to
provide supplemental water supplies had developed. Those reservoirs could not be
built because of the embargo. Finally, the embargo was lifted in 1925, the then
Secretary of Interior declaring that it had originally been illegally imposed.

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