WSPC06339

• File Number: 8272.500.10
• Description: Colorado River Basin-Water Quality-Salinity-Organizations and Entities-CO Dept of Public Health-WQCC
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 3/14/1980
• Title: Colorado River Salinity-Water Quality Control Commission-1978 Standards-Standards and Implementation Policy Hearings-Comments on Behalf of Chevron Shale Oil Company
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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The states were in disagreement as to how to proceed and how to allocate

the waters so as to protect the interests of each state. Chairman Hoover by the

conclusion of the seventh meeting suggested that perhaps the Commission was !Iso.

hopelessly far apart" that there was no use in proceeding. .However, they did

proceed, and eventually divided the Colorado River System into the Upper and

Lower Basins at Lee Ferry end allocated the waters of the river equally between

the two basins. By the end of the twenty-fifth session the Commissioners had

drafted and agreed upon the provisions of the Colorado River Compact.

The Commissioners returned to their respective states to introduce the

. Compact for ratification by each legislature. Unfortunately, ratification was not

forthcoming from all of the states. In 1928 Congress enacted the Boulder Canyon

Project Act, an act "to provide lor the construction of works for the I;lrotection and

development of the Colorado River Basin.IT Section 13 of the Act granted approval

to the Colorado River Compact and Section 4 provided that "no authority shall be

exercised hereunder and no work shall be begun and no moneys expended .,.n

until the seven states had ratified the compact, or until six states, including

C~ifornia, had ratified it and consented to waive t.he requirement in Article XI of

the Compact for unanimous consent. In March, 1929, the compact became

effective, six states having approved the compact ~~ .having waived unanimous

consent, 'and California having agreed. to limit her claims. Arizona refused to

ratily the compact until 1944.

There had been no agreement during the Colorado River Compact negotia-

tions as to how each Basin1s allocation of water would be divided among the respec-

tive states. In 1948 the Upper Basin states negotiated, with the consent of

Congress, the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, the purpose of which was to:

II . . . provide for the equitable division and apportion-
ment of the use of the waters of the Colorado River
System, the use of which was apportioned in perpetuity
to the Upper Basin by the Colorado River Compact; to
establish the obligations of each State of the Upper
Division with respect to deliveries of water required to
be made at Lee Ferry by the Colorado River Compact;
to promote interstate comity; to remove causes of
pr~ent and future controversies; to secure the expedi-
tious agricultural and industrial development of the
Upper Basin, the storage of water and to protect life
and property from floods," Article Ha)

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