WSP04958

• File Number: 8200.300.40
• Description: Colorado River Compact
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 8/1/1997
• Author: Daniel Tyler
• Title: Delpheus Emory Carpenter and the Colorado River Compact of 1922
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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10

In addition to the reasons he gave Hoover, Carpenter believed that a
compact on the Colorado River was necessary, because the federal
government was persisting in its claim to the .unappropriated waters of non-
navigable streams of the western states. Not only was such an objective
contrary to the Constitutional guarantee of state sovereignty, but if carried into
effect, "it would generally weaken the strength of each state and thereby
effectively undermine the foundations of our Federal structure." A compact,
on the other hand, would encourage unanimity of support for federal
reclamation by the states and would "promote the recognition of the
sovereignty of each state, thereby [strengthening] . . . the several units which
compose the national structure.")?
A compact would also provide protection to basin-of-origin states, such
as Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico. Although Justice Van
Devanter's opinion in Wyoming v. Colorado (June 5, 1922) was subject to
differing interpretations, there were those who were convinced that the rule of
priority would now prevail on interstate streams where two states followed the
same legal system of water rights adjudication. But even before the Van
Devanter decision, Carpenter had feared that if the lower basin states
(Arizona, California and Nevada) managed to utilize additional water from
the Colorado River as a result of works built by the federal government, they
would try to claim a legal priority, effectively forcing a servitude on the Upper
Basin that would require a certain quantity of water delivered annually from
the source to the faster growing states in the south. Without a compact to
protect their right to develop at a pace consistent with their own needs, the
upper basin states could grow only at the mercy of the Lower Basin. This
possibility stuck in Carpenter's craw. It conflicted with his deeply rooted
belief that the states had entered the Union on equal footing. The Upper