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~. . Colorado River Compact Symposium James S. Lochhead Page 17 that Would Allow the Upper Basin to Meet its Compact Obliqation and Develop its Uses The primary motivation for California to enter into compact negotiations was the prospect of gaining political support for construction of a large reservoir on the lower river to control floods and regulate water supply. However, all the commissioners were aware of the wildly fluctuating nature of the river flow, and the need for comprehensive reservoir development if security in any allocation among the states was to be achieved. In his opening remarks to the Compact Commission at its first meeting, Herbert Hoover said: The problem is not as simple as might appear on the surface for while there is possibly ample water in the river for all purposes if adequate storage be undertaken, there is not a sufficient supply of water to meet all claims unless there is some definite program of water conservation. * * * [I]t may develop in the course of our inquiry that there is a deficiency of water in the Colorado River unless we assume adequate storage. There may be a surplus if storage is provided. Therefore, the solution of the whole problem may well be contingent on storage . . . It would seem to me that it would be a great misfortune if we did not give to Congress and the country a broad p~Oject for development of the Colorado River as a whole. th th Later on in the negotiations, at the 13 - 16 meetings, the negotiators got to the heart of the issues in dividing the waters. They discussed how much water should be allocated to each basin, what types of delivery guarantee the upper Basin should make, and over what period the delivery obligation should be measured. The first agreement reached was the measuring point -- Lee Ferry. Then the commissioners turned to the concept of averaging. Carpenter proposed that the Upper Basin delivery obligation be averaged over a period of ten years, recognizing that storage in the upper Basin would be a necessary prerequisite to meeting that obligation. He stated: [A] consideration of the stream flow tables 34 st 1 meeting of the compact Commission, washington D.C., January 26, 1922.