WSP00282

• File Number: 8270.100
• Description: Colorado River Basin Water Quality/Salinity -- Misc Water Quality
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1967
• Author: USDOI
• Title: Quality of Water - Colorado River Basin - Progress Report No. 3 - January 1967
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

State of Colorado .
state of New Mexico
State of utah . .
State of Wyoming

51. 75 percent
ll.25 percent
23.00 percent
14."00 percent

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HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT

The compact, in effect, cleared the way for legislation authoriz-
ing the construction of major projects such as Boulder Canyon project,
and it also Cleared the way for compacts or agreements within the Upper
and Lower Basins to further divide the water among the states.

2.. Mexican Treaty

The treaty with Mexico, signed in 1944, provides basically for a
guaranteed annual delivery by the United States to Mexico of 1,500,000
acre-feet of Colorado River water.

3. Upper Colorado River Basin Compact

With the water allocated to the Upper Basin by the Colorado River
Compact and with the Mexican Treaty signed, the Upper Basin States be-
gan negotiations which resulted in the signing of the Upper Colorado
River Basin Compact in 1948. Under the terms of the compact, Arizona
is permitted to use 50,000 acre-feet of water annually from the upper
Colorado River system, and the remaining water is apportioned to the
other Upper Basin States in the following percentages:

Congress had previously been unwilling to approve projects without
assurance that a water supply would be available, so this division of
water among the states permitted development in the Upper Basin to pro-
ceed and resulted primarily in the a.uthorization of most of the Federal
projects above Lee Ferry that are mentioned in this report.

Neither of the compacts specifically mention water quality, but it
has been recognized as a factor to be considered in developing projects,
and water guality studies have been required by recent legislation au-
thorizing the construction of projects in the upper Basin.

4. Arizona v. California Suit in the Supreme Court

The States of the Lower Basin have never agreed to a compact for
the division of the use of the waters of the Lower Colorado River Basin.
The state of Arizona filed suit in the Supreme Court of the United states
in October 1952 against the State of California and others for the deter-
mination of the rights to use the waters of the Lower Colorado River sys-
tem. The Supreme Court gave its decision on June 3, 1963, and issued a
decree on March 9, 1964, providing for the apportionment of the use of
the waters of the main stream of the Colorado River below Lee Ferry among
the states of Arizona, California, and Nevada. The States of Arizona and

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