WSP01080

• File Number: 8407.500
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications - Missouri River
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 6/1/1978
• Author: Missouri Basin Inter
• Title: Missouri River Basin Comprehensive Framework Study-revised Volume III-Law-policies-and Administration-Appendix
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

Arkansas River. After ratification by the two states
involved, Congress ratified the compact and the
President approved it on May 31, 1949" 1 The
major purposes of the compact are to settle exist-
ing disputes and to remove causes of future contro-
versy between the states of Kansas and Colorado,
and between the citizens of the two states, con-
cerning the waters of the Arkansas River and con-
cerning their control, conservation, and utilization
for irrigation and other beneficial purposes; to
equitably divide and apportion between the two
states the waters of the Arkansas River and their
utilization as well as benefits arising from the
construction, operation, aAd maintenance by the
United States of John Martin Reservoir for water
conservation purposes.12
The compact provides for the "Arkansas River
Compact Administration" to administer its provi-
sions.13 To comprise the Administration, the gov-
ernor of each state appoints three representatives
from his state for a term not to exceed four
year5.14 Each governor must select two members
who are residents and water righ t owners in speci-
fied areas affected by the compact. 1 5 The compact
specifies that the third member from each state is
to be a certain water administration officia1.16 The
Colorado representative must be the Director of
the Colorado Conservation Board and the Kansas
representative must be "the chief state official
charged with the administration of water rights in
Kansas." Accordingly, the Kansas representative is
the chief engineer of the Division of Water Re-
sources of the State Board of Agriculture. The
President of the United States is requested by a
provision of the compact to designate a person to
represent the United States as an ex officio mem-
ber and act as chairman of the Administration
without vote.17
The Administration is empowered to adopt,
amend, and revoke bylaws, rules, and regulations
consistent with the provisions of the compact; to
prescribe procedures for the administration of the
compact; and to perform all functions required to
implement the compact and to do all things neces-
sary, proper, or convenient in the performance of
;+0 ,l,,';M 18
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The compact relates to the waters of the Ar-
kansas River.19 It defines those waters as the water

1162 Stat. 145 (1949).
12K.S.A. 82a-520, Art. I (1964).
I3K.S.A. 82a-520, Art. VIII (1964).
14K.S.A. 82a-520, Arl. VIII (1964).
15 K.S.A. 82a-520, Arl. VIII (1964).
16K.S.A. 82a-520, Art. VIII (1964).
17K.S.A. 82a-520, Art. VIII(C) (1964).
18K.S.A. 82a-520, Arl. III(B) (1964).
19K.S.A. 82a-520, Art. IV(A) (1964).

42

originating in the natural drainage basin of the Ar-
kansas River, including its tributaries upstream
from the Colorado-Kansas State line, excluding
waters brought into the Arkansas River Basin from
other river basins.2 0
The compact apportions the waters of the Ar-
kansas River between the states of Kansas and
Colorado in terms of the periods of winter and
summer storage and it establishes the conditions
for the release of water from storage.21 It also
provides that each state may call for releases sep-
arately or concurrently with the other. 22 In gen-
eral, the states of Kansas and Colorado have rights
to releases from storage in the ratio of two to
three respectively, with no allowance for debits or
credits. The releases to which Kansas is entitled are
to be satisfied by an equivalent state line flow. Dur-
ing periods when the reservoir is empty and Colo-
rado reverts to the administration of decreed prior-
ities, Kansas is not entitled to any portion of the
flow into John Martin Reservoir. Waters originating
in Colorado which may flow across the state line
during such periods are apportioned to Kansas.23

5. Arkansas River Compact (Kansas-Oklahoma)

Recently the states of Kansas and Oklahoma
have entered into an Arkansas River Compact,
which compact involves the water supplies of the
Arkansas River and its tributaries. After its ratifi-
cation by the states of Kansas and Oklahoma,
Congress ratified the compact and the President
approved it on November 7, 1966.24 The main
purposes of the compacting parties are to promote
interstate comity between the sta tes of Kansas and
Oklahoma; to divide and apportion equitably be-
tween the states of Kansas and Oklahoma the
waters of the Arkansas River Basin and to promote
the orderly development of those waters; to pro-
vide an agency for administering the water appor-
tionment to which the compacting parties have
agreed; to encourage the main tenance of an active
pollution abatement program in each of the two
states; and, to seek the further reduction of both
natural and man-made pollution in the waters of
.t..~ A_I_~_Mn n;..~_ D~n:_ 25
lIlC J-\.ll\.dU;:)d,) l'IVCI Ud:)ll1.

The compact provides for the creation of the
"Kansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Commission"
to administer its provisions.26 The Commission is

20K.S.A. 82a-520, Art. III(B) (1964).
21 K.S.A. 82a-520, Art. V (1964).
22K.S.A. 82a-520, Art. V (1964).
23K.S.A. 82a-520, Arl. V (1964).
24See 80 Stat. 1405 (1966).
25Kan. Laws 1966, Spec. Sess., Ch. 16, Art. I.
26Kan. Laws 1966, Spec. Sess., Ch. 16, Art. X.