WSP05261 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

, {~*~ Western States Water Council Meeting APPENDIX I Boise, Idaho April 12, 1974 THE COLORADO RIVER BASIN SALINITY CONTROL ACT tv tv tv W Wesley E. Steiner, Executive Director and Executive Director, Arizona Water Commissim, Phoenix, Arizona and Vice Chairman, Western States Water Council With this group I hasten to establish the ground rules at the outset of my presentation, Be forewarned that contrary to what you might normally expect from me, I will not end my presentation with a request that the Council go on record supporting the legis- lation I will discuss. In fact, I will not ask for any Council action at all. I believe I have an interesting subject, however, and one on which you should have at least a rudimentary knowledge. Pre- cedents have been set in interpretation of treaties and hopefully are about to be set in federal law. You should be aware of these precedents. The former may adversely affect you at some point in the future. The latter, I believe, could prove of great benefit to your states. While I will not seek Council action I must admit that I hope you will receive my presentation with sufficient favor to feel inclhed individually to urge your congressmen to support the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control legislation, H ~ R. 12165 and S,2940. In the hope that this will be the case, I committed my presentation to writing and brought enough copies along for our members from the Northwest in the hope that they will find them useful in answering questions from congressmen and in formula- ting their support. Council members from the Southwest may already be suffering fro m overkill. ~ii 'k ,,' First, some background, After more than twenty years of negotiations concerning equitable sharing of the waters of the Colorado River, representative of the United States and Mexico signed the Mexican Water Treaty in 1944. Mexico had argued that the waters should be divided according to the principle of equitable apportionment and without regard to current usage. Under this approach Mexico~";J auld .have received about 2510 of the flows of the Colorado. The United States, on the other hand, contended that in light of the fact that the U,S. was j ,^ .' , A-1 :'i i i f "