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<br />001528 <br /> <br />:~(::>.) <br />"\:~:i'! <br /> <br />I. Introduction. <br /> <br />:. <br /> <br />Congress is fast changing the federal rules which influence <br /> <br />the uses of Colorado River waters. <br /> <br />Seventy years ago, in 1922 <br /> <br />I <br />;t <br /> <br />Congress conditioned federal financing of Lower and Upper Basin <br />facilities required to utilize the waters of the Colorado River on <br /> <br />the negotiation of an agreement by the States as to how the waters <br /> <br />of the Colorado River would be allocated. In the years since, the <br /> <br />irrigation, and M & I economies of the Lower Basin States have <br /> <br />blossomed. The promise and hope of Upper Basin development has, in <br /> <br />contrast, failed to materialize. <br /> <br />As a result, the 1922 plan to <br /> <br />fully develop the irrigable acreage of each Basin has given way to <br /> <br />new regional realities, so that today, seventy years later, a <br /> <br />permanent scarcity of Colorado River water is just appearing in the <br /> <br />Lower Basin and a permanent surplus is fixed in the Upper Basin. <br /> <br />Federal pOlicies pertaining to the development of the Colorado <br /> <br />River have played an important role in the evolution of what I term <br /> <br />the new regional realities. For example, as I show below, federal <br /> <br /> <br />policies encouraged massive growth in Arizona and California and <br /> <br />massive consumption by those states of Colorado River waters. At <br /> <br />the same time federal policies have curtailed the Upper Basin water <br /> <br />development in favor of instream flows for the benefit of <br /> <br />endangered fish, and recreation. This paper suggests that because <br /> <br />the federal policies have fundamentally undermined the purpose and <br /> <br />plan of the 1922 Compact, common sense and equi table neighbor <br /> <br />2 <br />