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<br />,.1 <br /> <br />C\l <br />c.o <br />C\l <br />C\l <br />C::.J <br />c) <br /> <br />United States Congress, for the purpose of equitably apportioning <br /> <br />the waters of the Arkansas River which originate in Colorado <br /> <br />between the two states. In general, water stored in the conserva- <br /> <br />tion pool may be released to the irrigators in each state from <br /> <br />April 1 through October 31 each year. The conservation pool has <br /> <br />been dry at times in fifteen of the past twenty years. <br /> <br />John Martin Created Because of Interstate Controversy <br /> <br />Controversy was inevitable between Colorado and Kansas <br /> <br />because of rapid development of irrigation in the Arkansas Valley <br /> <br />and the nature of Colorado water law, the Doctrine of Prior <br /> <br />'t' 2 <br />Appropr~a ~on. <br /> <br />As early as 1891 Kansas claimed it was not getting an <br /> <br />equitable share of the river and in 1901 filed suit against <br /> <br />Colorado in the United States Supreme Court asking relief from <br /> <br />injury. The Supreme Court's decision in 1907 was in Colorado's <br /> <br />favor, recognizing that appropriation in Colorado had inflicted <br /> <br />perceptible injury in Kansas to portions of the Arkansas Valley, <br /> <br />while the whole of the Valley had suffered little, if any, and <br /> <br />benefits in reclamation of large areas of Colorado into fertile <br /> <br />2The doctrine holds that: (a) Water in its natural course is <br />public property: (b) a vested right to use the water may be <br />acquired by appropriation and application to beneficial use: <br />(c) the first person in time to use the water is the first <br />person in right: and (d) beneficial use is the measure and <br />the limit of the right. <br /> <br />-2- <br />