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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27

The States of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming jointly and
severally agree with the remainder of the High Contracting Parties that
the diversions from the Colorado River and its tributaries and the uses
and consumption of water within the Upper Division shall never reduce
the mean or average annual flow of the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry
over any period often (10) consecutive years, below a flow equivalent
to thirty-six per cent (36%) of the agreed established average annual
flow of the river at Yuma, Arizona, as defined in paragraph one (I) of
this Article, to wit, below a flow of six million two hundred and sixty-
four thousand (6, 264,000) acre-feet. . . .69
Discussions of this article led to Carpenter's articulation of the Upper Basin's
obligation to Mexico, how the ten-year average would be calculated, how
much time the Upper Basin needed to develop and why the Gila River had to
be included in negotiations regarding the Colorado River system.

Upper Basin Q.hligations .and Needs;
The "Mexican burden" was the subject of extensive debate, but because
Hoover was concerned that some arguments presented in Santa Fe might be
used against the United States when the time came to make a treaty with
Mexico, he successfully suggested that all discussion vis-a-vis Mexico be
expunged from the record.70 Still, it is apparent from extant documentation
that Carpenter believed that Mexico should be treated fairly and that so long
as a surplus existed in the river, the Lower Basin should be responsible for
delivering the water agreed to by treaty.
This was not his initial position. The draft compact sent out to
commissioners in August 1922 stated that
[T]he duty and burden of supplying any waters from the flow of the