WSP04706

• File Number: 8200.400.30.C
• Description: La Plata River Compact
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 9/1/2001
• Author: Kenneth W. Knox
• Title: The La Plata River Compact: Administration of an Ephemeral River in the Arid Southwest
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

108

WATER LAW REVlEW

Volume 5

1904 to survey the area and make recommendations for
improvement." Recognizing that the Animas River, located just to the
east of the La Plata River, had ample supplies, the supervising
engineer, M. C. HinderIider, surveyed a 40,000 acre project area in
New Mexico that the Animas River could supplement." The proposed
transbasin water was to be carried through a thirty-two mile canal that
would divert water from. the Animas River near Durango, Colorado,
and then through a three mile tunnel that would penetrate the
Animas-La Plata divide for subsequent delivery to the La Plata River."
The estimated project cost was $3,000,000 or $61 per acre reclaimed.
Since this was not cost effective, the Reclamation Service abandoned
the project."
Periodic drought conditions continued to plague the La Plata
River watershed. For example, during the week of October 13,1917,
the mean daily flow at the upper streamflow river gaging station at
Hesperus, Colorado was. only 1.9 cubic feet per second, the lowest
seven day minimum daily flow in the record." The drought extended
into the following spring and summer of 1918. The total recorded
flow of the La Plata River was 19,000 acre-feet at the Hesperus
streamflow gaging station and only 6,800 acre-feet at the gaging station
near the state line, with many reaches of the river dry during the late
summer months."
Because of the drought and because upstream water users were
fully appropriating the marginal water supplies of this ephemeral river,
the state of New Mexico took action to protect its users, In March of
1919, New Mexico officials notified the Attorney General of Colorado
of its intent to seek relief in the United States Supreme Court over the
La Plata River." This aation provided the impetus for Colorado to
employ Mr. Ralph L Meeker to identity, quantity, and map the ditches
and irrigated lands in Colorado during the 1919 irrigation season." In
a similar fashion, the State of New Mexico retained Mr. George" McNeil
to perform the same services for the La Plata River in New Mexico."
Both Colorado and New Mexico continued engineering and
hydrologic analyses for the next three years. To represent Colorado's
interests, Governor Oliver H. Shoup appointed Mr. Delph E.
Carpenter as commission,,, for negotiating a potential interstate river
compact, with technical assistance provided by Mr. Meeker." In a

23, Id.
24. Id.
25. Ill.
26. Ill.
27. See USGS, supra note ll..at 400.
28. MEEKER, supra note 16, at 3.
29. Id.
30. Id. at 4.
31. Ill.
32. DELPH E. CARPENTER, REpORT OF DELPH E. CARPENTER, COMMISSIONER OF THE
STATE OF COLORADO IN RE U:PLATA RIvER COMPACT (1922). Mr. Carpenter was
appointed La Plata River Compact Commissioner by Governor Shoup under authority