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6 interstate compact plan by 1909,28 he kept the details to himself, publicly espousing the principle of prior appropriation on two noteworthy occasions. The first was a bill he sponsored that protected reservoir owners from having their water taken by ditch companies with junior appropriation dates.29 The second was a lengthy report he wrote on the status of Colorado's intra- and interstate water.30 It was this report, in which Carpenter pleaded for adequate funds to fight against federal encroachments and law suits by other states, that he gained state-wide recognition as an expert on Colorado's interstate stream system. In 1911 when Wyoming sued over Colorado's plans to take Laramie River water into the Cache la Poudre watershed, Carpenter was rewarded; first, by being selected lead defense attorney in that case and two years later as the state's representative on all interstate stream negotiations.31 Carpenter now faced a dilemma: having publicly defended the principle of prior appropriation, he was now challenged by an adversary arguing that . Wyoming had prior rights on the Laramie River. Furthermore, as attorney for the Greeley Poudre Irrigation District which hoped to add 125,000 acres of new farm land with water from the Laramie River, he had a fiduciary responsibility to the District because of the millions of dollars of bonds being sold nationally and internationally to complete construction of that project How to reconcile prior appropriation and equitable apportionment became his chief concern as he prepared to argue the Wyoming case in the United States Supreme Court. For three years he worked to prove that Colorado actually had an earlier decree than Wyoming on the Laramie River. He recognized that the Supreme Court would decide the case on the basis of priorities, because both states subscribed to the prior appropriation doctrine. Philosophically, however, he believed that priority across state lines would ultimately weaken state autonomy.32 Regardless, he persisted, working long hours to prepare a brief that he personally presented before the Court in December 1916. While pleased with the favorable comments he received,33 Carpenter left Washington physically and emotionally exhausted. He began taking hot baths for what he called a "neuritis" condition and when he learned in March 1917 that the Court had redocketed the case in order to allow the United States to make its