WSP05694

• File Number: 8282.500.20.A
• Description: Colorado River Operations
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 7/25/1969
• Author: USDOI/BOR
• Title: Meeting of Federal and State Representatives for Review of Basic Data Pertinent to the Preparation of Operating Criteria for the Colorado Pursuant to Section 602 of Public Law 90-537
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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power from Hoover Dam by reason of the computed annual deficiency

in firm power generated at the Hoover Powerplant, by reason of

water impounded in the reservoirs of the Colorado River Storage

Project.

Supreme Court Decree in Arizona v. California
Following 12 years of litigation, the Supreme Court issued its decree
on March 9, 1964 (376 U.S. 340).

The Court held that neither the Colorado River Compact nor the law of

prior appropriation nor the doctrine of equitable apportionment con-

trolled the division of Lower Basin water between the states of the

. Lower Basin, but that the Boulder Canyon Project Act authorized an

apportionment of the Lower Colorado River and, hence, must be used

as a guide.

The apportionment of Lower Basin water was restricted to the mainstream

of the Colorado River downstream from Lee Ferry within the United

States. Indian reservations along the mainstream are given priority

for water, dating from the time the lands in question became a part

of the reservation.

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Article II (B) of the decree provided, in part, as follows:

"(1) If sufficient mainstream water is available for release,

as determined by the Secretary of the Interior, to aatisfy

7,500,000 acre-feet of annual consumptive use * * *, there

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