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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />25 <br /> <br />when compared with the tremendous volumes we annually turn down to the <br />Lower River. . . . [The whole subject] serves as an illustration of how some <br />small and insignificant matter may so inject itself into these proceedings as to <br />defeat the general purpose." lfthe Lower Basin so wished, he was willing to <br />write into the Compact that the Upper Basin "would never divert more than a <br />given number of acre-feet from the drainage area for use in the drainage area <br />of other streams, at least until further additional diversions were allowed by <br />future compact. "61 At the Phoenix hearings, Davis had recommended this as a <br />reasonable consideration: 500,000 acre-feet or more, because he recognized <br />that uses outside the basin might be superior to those inside the basin and <br />because, compared to the Imperial Valley situation, return flows would be <br />available for additional uses when diverted to the East Slope.62 <br />Closely related to Lower Basin fears about transmountain diversions <br />was the general apprehension in both basins regarding the actual amount of <br />water in the river. In his report to Governor Oliver Shoup immediately <br />following the Santa Fe meeting of the Colorado River Commissioners, <br />Carpenter credited R. 1. Meeker, Colorado's Deputy State Engineer, "whose <br />comprehensive knowledge of the entire Colorado River basin commanded the <br />attention of the Commission and facilitated its labors,"63 Meeker estimated the <br />Colorado River's average annual water supply at 20,500,000 acre-feet (20.5 <br />mat). He logged total consumption at 7 maf in 1921, leaving a surplus in the <br />river of 13.5 maf He calculated the Upper Basin water supply at ] 7.5 maf and <br />the Lower Basin's contribution at 3 l11afand he estimated that the Upper <br />Basin's additional requirements to meet future needs would be 5 maf, the <br />Lower Basin's future requirements at 4 maf64 Subtracting the total future <br />requirements in both basins of9 maffrom the then extant surplus of 13.5 maf, <br />Meeker arrived at the conclusion that in ] 922 the Colorado River had a <br />