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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l2ELEHlIS .EMQRY CARe.ENIER
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IHE rOT ,OR ADO RIVER rOMPAr-~ ill 1222

The Colorado River Compact signed in Santa Fe on November 24,
1922, and approved by Congress in the Boulder Canyon Project Act,
December 21, 1928, was created by a commission made up of representatives
from the seven Colorado River basin states under the chairmanship of
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, representing the United States. The
final document reflected the opinions of many people. Each commissioner
employed the services of attorneys, engineers and hydrologists. Attending
sessions at the Bishop's Lodge in Santa Fe were volunteers from many
interested organizations, along with employees of the United States
Reclamation Service (USRS), soon to be called the Bureau of Reclamation
(USBR). Most of the seven states were represented by their governors at one
time or another; some had just been elected; others were lame ducks. Prior to
the Santa Fe meeting, public hearings had been held at Phoenix, Los Angeles,
Salt Lake City, Grand Junction, Denver and Cheyenne. At these meetings
commissioners exposed their plans to the general populace which responded
with penetrating questions revealing local concerns, prejudices and opinions.
The signed Compact was a distillation of all these views.
Nevertheless, the direction, focus, energy and principal ideas of the
commissioners came primarily from the leadership of Delph us E. Carpenter,
interstate streams commissioner from Colorado since 1913. Carpenter was
appointed his state's representative on the Colorado River Compact
Commission in 1921. In that same year he was also named Colorado's
official representative on interstate commissions involving the South Platte,