WSP05392

• File Number: 8021
• Description: Section D General Correspondence - Western States Water Council
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 6/5/1991
• Author: Natural Resources La
• Title: Coordinated Water Management Under the Prior Appropriation Doctrine in New Mexico - Rio Grande Case - Pecos River Case
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Service project on the Rio Grande, which was presented earlier in

the Rio Grande case,

In 1939, Secretary of the Interior Harold

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L, Ickes requested that the Chairman of the Natural Resources

Committee conduct a thorough study of the water problems in the

Pecos River Basin,

The Secretary pointed out that increasingly

acute problems connected with water quality and water use in the

basin made a general comprehensive investigation necessary,

Thereafter, the Pecos River Joint Investigation was made and

resul ts were published in 1942,

In that year, New Mexico and

Texas began negotiation of a compact.

After several years of

negotiation it was not until December 3, 1948, that the compact

was signed by the commissioners of the two states,

In 1949, the

legislatures of the two states ratified the compact and Congress

and the President approved the agreement,

Since that time, the

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compact has been binding upon the states.

The intent of the compact was to preserve the status quo of
man-made depletions from the Pecos River water as of 1947, The

key provision of the compact is found in Article III (a) in a

sentence which reads as follows:

"New Mexico shall not deplete by man's

activities the flow of the Pecos River at the

New Mexico-Texas state line below an amount

which will give to Texas a quantity of water
equivalent to that available to Texas under

the 1947 condition,"

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