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<br />not object to the storage of water in the Elephant Butte Reservoir for <br /> <br />release to the Republic of Mexico. but we do object to any implication <br /> <br />that this national obligation should be transferred to the State of <br /> <br />Colorado. <br /> <br />It is most obvious that the Mexican Treaty obligation imposes <br /> <br />a delivery requirement of 60,000 acre-feet of water annually from the <br /> <br />Rio Grande River for use in the Republic of Mexico. This requirement <br /> <br />imposes a considerable burden upon the State of Colorado wherein about <br /> <br />half of the upper river flow originates. I repeat again that this is <br /> <br />a burden which was assumed as a national ,obligation and not one which <br /> <br />the State of Colorado assumed by voluntary interstate compact. <br /> <br />We believe that simple equity demands that a national obliga- <br /> <br />tion be fulfilled at national expense. Both New Mexico and Texas have <br /> <br />received substantial assistance in connection with the national obliga- <br /> <br />tion assumed by the treaties of 1906 and 1944. On the other hand, <br /> <br />the State of Colorado has received no assistance. <br /> <br />r ~ -..... -: ,-,-) <br />-j " .......... -.. <br /> <br />It is true that in 1938 the States of Colorado. New Mexico <br /> <br />and Texas entered into the Rio Grande River Compact now in effect. <br /> <br />The compact was based upon two faulty premises. namely: that the <br /> <br />precompact recorded average annual flow of the river would continue <br /> <br />and that precompact water rights would not be impaired. The post- <br /> <br />compact river flows have proven to be considerably less than antic- <br /> <br />ipated, and. as a result of the stipulation in the pending case in <br /> <br />-3- <br />