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O. STATEMENT REI INTERSTATE RELATIONS UNDER PLAN OF OPERATION OF CADDOA RESERVOIR AND ADMINISTRATION OF RIGHTS IN ARKANSAS RIVER .Y-.:'".l .~. ~.. ~ ~ W FOREWORD The plan of operation and administration hereinafter defined was adopted by the water users and officials of Colorado on a trial basis, and for !l test period beginning April 1. 1944, upon the understanding that any details which prove unworkable or inequitable, or concerning which disputes arise, may be reviewed and revised si'ter proper hearings thereon. Tm said plan provides. among other things. fori (1) operation of the irrigation pool in Caddo a Reservoir in accordance with the public nature and authorized purposes of the John Martin (Caddoa) Reservoir Project, as hereinafter more fully described; (2) administration of the rights of ap- propriators along the Arkansas River in Colorado whose operations and re- lations with each other are affected by operations of Caddoa Reservoir; (3) the maintenance of pre-Caddoa relations between the two States, with respect to usable water supplies of the Arkansas River. under the Opinion of the United States Supreme Court entered Deoenber 6. 1943 in the case of Colorado and Kansas; (4) a proportionate division between the water users of the two States of such additional supplies as may become available for increased use through operations of Caddoa Reservoir; and (5) the prevention. so far as possible, of future local and interstate disputes and litigation. The said plan recognizes that Caddoa Reservoir will ohange the streamflow conditions downstream. and. by changing the pre-Caddoa diversion opportunities and relations both above and below Caddoa, in the absence of such a plan. may benefit one ditch. or one group of water users. or one state. at the expense or to the injury of another. and may thus become the souroe of continuing controvsrsy and of possible litigation between (a) the individual appropriators downstream in Water District 67 in Colorado; (b) that group and others in Colorado upstream in Water Distriots 14 and 17; and (0) the water users of the two States. It reoognizes also that interstate relations will in part be determined by the manner in whioh Caddoa Reservoir is operated and the Colorado water rights are administered; and that the problems of reservoir operation and water-right administration are inter- dependent and inseparable. For these reasons the statement conoerning in- terstate relations is preoeded by an explanatory statement regarding the Caddoa project. the Colorado system of water right administration, and re- lated matters, EXPLANATORY STATEMENT 1. The Caddoa projeot, located on the Arkansas River in Colorado about 58 miles upstream by river from the State line between Colorado and Kansas. \'As authorized by Congress for oonstruotion by the United States, War De- partment, Corps of Engineers. as a dual-purpose project. to provide fOri (l) flood control. and (2) irrigation. alC\Dg the Arkansas River in Colorado ( 1)