Laserfiche WebLink
<br />~,,) <br /> <br />\)OO~5~ <br /> <br />In the past interstate water compacts have been looked upon as providing <br />a means of the equitable division or apportionment of the use of water of a oar- <br />ticular river and to remove causes of present and future controversies. Usually <br />c~ch compacts have been prompted in an effort amicably to adjust an immediate <br />controversy which otherwise would have to be settled, if a justiciable issue <br />existed, in the Supreme Court of the United States. In the formulation of such <br />C0mpacts the provisions for their administration have been confined to the details <br />0: carrying out the apportionment of water. It can be .said that too often such <br />'c.~nacts were not broad enough in scope to envision a program of river basin de- <br />velopment. It has not been fully reco;;nized that the settlement of basic ques- <br />tions relating to conflict in the use of water for various purposes, as well as <br />~~?ortionment of water, provisions for the operation of project facilities, par- <br />tj_cipation by the signatory States in the plan for a regional development, and <br />~~tegration of the activities of the signatory States and interested Federal <br />agencies may be encompassed within the four corners of an interstate compact. In <br />t~is connection, it may be nointed out that an administrative agency created by <br />compact may be representative of both the affected States and of the Federal <br />government. It is obvious that, since a compact, as well as the agency which will <br />2dminister it, derives its legal status by the approval of the legislatures of the <br />signatory States and by the consent of the Congress of the United States, it has a <br />legislative stature which is truly representative. <br />As an example of the purposes which a compact may serve in river basin <br /> <br /> <br />development, may I refer to the recently consummated Upper Colorado River Basin <br /> <br /> <br />Compact. This Compact apportions Colorado River water, which had been allocated <br /> <br /> <br />by the Colorado River Compact of 1922 to the Upper Basin, among the States which <br /> <br /> <br />comprise that basin. It sets up the criteria by which such States shall meet <br /> <br /> <br />their obligations to deliver water at Lee Ferry for use in the Lower Basin; it <br /> <br />-4- <br />