WSP06020

• File Number: 8271.300
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - General Information and Publications-Reports
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/3000
• Author: Sidney McFarland
• Title: Water Quality and the Law of the River
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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00 In 1952, an action was instituted in the Supreme Court of
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the United States by'the State of Arizona against the State of
California to obtain an adjudication of lower Basin ~latcr rights.
The principal issue in this litigation concerned the relative en-
titlement of California and Arizona to the use' of ~later from the
Colorado River, Arizona alleging that, pursuant to the Colorado
River Compact and the Boulder Canyon Project Act, Arizona was entitled

to the beneficial consumptive use of 2.8 million acre-feet of water

each ye~~ from the Colorado River and that California's correspond-

ing entitlemcnt was limited to 4.4. million acre-feet.

The united States and Nevada intervened and, on the motion of

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iCalifornia, New Mexico and Utah were added as parties in the case.

IThe litigation "las referred 'to a special master ~lhose report ~las

lissued in December 1960. The opinion of the Supreme Cou~t was

rendered on June 3, 1963 (373 u.S. 546); and, 12 years after it

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!began, the Court, on March 9, 1964, issued.,its decree(376 u.s. 340)..
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The Supreme Court findings are summarized as follows:

~Q] ",.." rl 'Ol I,;i ver",Comp'~c;j;,.,Q.ssentia.;w,.y-d;L.~e-cl-1:1re-wa.t_

to allocate water to individual States within either Basin.

The Court held that neither the Co~pact, nor the law of prior

appropriation, nor the doctrine of equitable apportionment

controlled 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.

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