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- "T'-.. j < 21-3 LAW OF THE CoLORADO RIVER ~ 21.01 ers one-twelfth of the contiguous continental United States.l It crosses or borders seven states and passes through another country, Mexico. Because "[i]t is the only great river. . . en- tirely within an arid region," Congressman Taylor of Colo- rado pronounced it in 1928 to be "intrinsically the most valu- able stream in the world." 2 Its water is exported beyond its drainage area to a greater degree than that of any other American river.3 Over half of the people of the West depend upon it as a source of water,4 although, unlike any other ma- jor river, no large city is situated close to it.5 Harnessed and redirected by a network of dams and diver- sion projects, vigorously administered by state authorities, and stewarded by the Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado is "one of the most institutionally encompassed rivers in the country." 6 A set of compacts, treaties, statutes, and judicial decisions, collectively known as the law of the river, has de- veloped to govern the River and allocate its water among the Colorado Basin states and between the United States and Mexico. The cornerstone of the law of the river, the Colorado River Compact of 1922, materialized principally as a result of fear of a recurrence of floods that devastated parts of the lower River in 1905-07 and again in 1916. Ironically, though, the condition which has most troubled the law of the River since its inception has been the opposite problem: insuffi- cient quantities of water. Despite the apparent intentions of the framers of the 1922 Compact, the burden of these deficiencies is often assumed to fall largely on the states of the Upper Basin. As the Director of Colorado's Natural Resources Department recently as- sessed this predicament: "The ultimate problem for the Up- 1 Arizona v. California, 373 U.S. 546. 552 (1963). 2 69 Cong. Rec. 9763 (1928). 3 U.S. Department of Interior, Westwide Study Report on Critical Water Problems Facing the Eleven Western States 154 (1975). 4Id. S Nash, "Wilderness Values and the Colorado River" in New Courses for the Colo- rado River: Major Issues for the Next Century 206 (G. Weatherford & F. Brown eds. 1986). ' 6 Westwide Study Report, supra note 3. at 154.