§ 37-61-101 — Colorado River compact

Colorado § 37-61-101

• Jurisdiction: Colorado
• Title 37: Water and
• Art.: Colorado River Compact

Text

The General Assembly hereby approves
the compact, designated as the Colorado River Compact, signed at the City of
Santa Fe, State of New Mexico, on the 24th day of November, A.D. 1922, by Delph E.
Carpenter, as the Commissioner for the State of Colorado, under authority of and in
conformity with the provisions of an act of the General Assembly of the State of
Colorado, approved April 2, 1921, entitled An Act providing for the appointment of
a Commissioner on behalf of the State of Colorado to negotiate a compact and
agreement between the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New
Mexico, Utah and Wyoming and between said States and the United States
respecting the use and distribution of the waters of the Colorado River and the
rights of said States and the United States thereto, and making an appropriation
therefor., the same being Chapter 246 of the Session Laws of Colorado, 1921, and
signed by the Commissioners for the States of Arizona, California, Nevada, New
Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, under legislative authority, and signed by the
Commissioners for said seven States and approved by the Representative of the
United States of America under authority and in conformity with the provisions of
an Act of the Congress of the United States, approved August 19, 1921, entitled An
Act to permit a compact or agreement between the States of Arizona, California,
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, respecting the disposition and
apportionment of the waters of the Colorado River, and for other purposes., which
said compact is as follows:

Colorado River Compact

The States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and
Wyoming, having resolved to enter into a compact, under the Act of the Congress of
the United States of America approved August 19, 1921, (42 Statutes at Large, page
171), and the Acts of the legislatures of the said states, have through their
Governors appointed as their commissioners:

W. S. Norviel, for the State of Arizona;

W. F. McClure, for the State of California;

Delph E. Carpenter, for the State of Colorado;

J. G. Scrugham, for the State of Nevada;

Stephen B. Davis, Jr., for the State of New Mexico;

R. E. Caldwell, for the State of Utah;

Frank C. Emerson, for the State of Wyoming;

who, after negotiations participated in by Herbert Hoover appointed by the
President as the representative of the United States of America, have agreed upon
the following articles:

Article I

The major purposes of this compact are to provide for the equitable division
and apportionment of the use of the waters of the Colorado River System; to
establish the relative importance of different beneficial uses of water; to promote
interstate comity; to remove causes of present and future controversies; and to
secure the expeditious agricultural and industrial development of the Colorado
River Basin, the storage of its waters and the protection of life and property from
floods. To these ends the Colorado River Basin is divided into two Basins, and an
apportionment of the use of part of the water of the Colorado River System is made
to each of them with the provision that further equitable apportionments may be
made.

Article II

As used in this Compact:

(a) The term Colorado River System means that portion of the Colorado
River and its tributaries within the United States of America.

(b) The term Colorado River Basin means all of the drainage area of the
Colorado River System and all other territory within the United States of America to
which the waters of the Colorado River System shall be beneficially applied.

(c) The term States of the Upper Division means the States of Colorado,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

(d) The term States of the Lower Division means the States of Arizona,
California and Nevada.

(e) The Lee Ferry means a point in the main stream of the Colorado River
one mile below the mouth of the Paria River.

(f) The term Upper Basin means those parts of the States of Arizona,
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming within and from which waters naturally
drain into the Colorado River System above Lee Ferry, and also all parts of said
States located without the drainage area of the Colorado River System which are
now or shall hereafter be beneficially served by waters diverted from the System
above Lee Ferry.

(g) The term Lower Basin means those parts of the States of Arizona,
California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah within and from which waters naturally
drain into the Colorado River System below Lee Ferry, and also all parts of said
States located without the drainage area of the Colorado River System which are
now or shall hereafter be beneficially served by waters diverted from the System
below Lee Ferry.

(h) The term domestic use shall include the use of water for household,
stock, municipal, mining, milling, industrial and other like purposes, but shall
exclude the generation of electrical power.

Article III

(a) There is hereby apportioned from the Colorado River System in perpetuity
to the Upper Basin and to the Lower Basin respectively the exclusive beneficial
consumptive use of 7,500,000 acre feet of water per annum, which shall include all
water necessary for the supply of any rights which may now exist.

(b) In addition to the apportionment in paragraph (a) the Lower Basin is
hereby given the right to increase its beneficial consumptive use of such waters by
one million acre per annum.

(c) If, as a matter of international comity, the United States of America shall
hereafter recognize in the United States of Mexico any right to the use of any
waters of the Colorado River System, such waters shall be supplied first from the
waters which are surplus over and above the aggregate of the quantities specified
in paragraphs (a) and (b); and if such surplus shall prove insufficient for this
purpose, then, the burden of such deficiency shall be equally borne by the Upper
Basin and the Lower Basin, and whenever necessary the States of the Upper
Division shall deliver at Lee Ferry water to supply one-half of the deficiency so
recognized in addition to that provided in paragraph (d).

(d) The states of the Upper Division will not cause the flow of the river at Lee
Ferry to be depleted below an aggregate of 75,000,000 acre feet for any period of
ten consecutive years reckoned in continuing progressive series beginning with the
first day of October next succeeding the ratification of this compact.

(e) The States of the Upper Division shall not withhold water, and the States
of the Lower Division shall not require the delivery of water, which cannot
reasonably be applied to domestic and agricultural uses.

(f) Further equitable apportionment of the beneficial uses of the waters of
the Colorado River System unapportioned by paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) may be
made in the manner provided in paragraph (g) at any time after October first, 1963,
if and when either basin shall have reached its total beneficial consumptive use as
set out in paragraphs (a) and (b).

(g) In the event of a desire for a further apportionment as provided in
paragraph (f) any two signatory States, acting through their Governors, may give
joint notice of such desire to the Governors of the other signatory States and to the
President of the United States of America, and it shall be the duty of the Governor
of the signatory states and of the President of the United States of America
forthwith to appoint representatives, whose duty it shall be to divide and apportion
equitably between the Upper Basin and Lower Basin the beneficial use of the
unapportioned water of the Colorado River System as mentioned in paragraph (f),
subject to the Legislative ratification of the signatory States and the Congress of
the United States of America.

Article IV

(a) Inasmuch as the Colorado River has ceased to be navigable for commerce
and the reservation of its waters for navigation would seriously limit the
development of its Basin, the use of its waters for purpose of navigation shall be
subservient to the uses of such waters for domestic, agricultural and power
purposes. If the Congress shall not consent to this paragraph, the other provisions
of this compact shall nevertheless remain binding.

(b) Subject to the provisions of this compact, water of the Colorado River
System may be impounded and used for the generation of electrical power, but
such impounding and use shall be subservient to the use and consumption of such
water for agricultural and domestic purposes and shall not interfere with or prevent
use for such dominant purposes.

(c) The provisions of this article shall not apply to or interfere with the
regulation and control by any state within its boundaries of the appropriation, use
and distribution of water.

Article V

The Chief Official of each signatory State charged with the administration of
water rights, together with the Director of the United States Reclamation Service
and the Director of the United States Geological Survey shall co-operate, ex officio:

(a) To promote the systematic determination and coordination of the facts as
to flow, appropriation, consumption and use of water in the Colorado River Basin,
and the interchange of available information in such matters.

(b) To secure the ascertainment and publication of the annual flow of the
Colorado River at Lee Ferry.

(c) To perform such other duties as may be assigned by mutual consent of
the signatories from time to time.

Article VI

Should any claim or controversy arise between any two or more of the
signatory States: (a) with respect to the waters of the Colorado River System not
covered by the terms of this compact; (b) over the meaning or performance of any
of the terms of this compact; (c) as to the allocation of the burdens incident to the
performance of any article of this compact or the delivery of waters as herein
provided; (d) as to the construction or operation of works within the Colorado River
Basin to be situated in two or more States, or to be constructed in one State for the
benefit of another State; or (e) as to the diversion of water in one State for the
benefit of another State; the Governors of the States affected, upon the request of
one of them, shall forthwith appoint Commissioners with power to consider and
adjust such claim or controversy, subject to ratification by the Legislatures of the
States so affected.

Nothing herein contained shall prevent the adjustment of any such claim or
controversy by any present method or by direct future legislative action of the
interested States.

Article VII

Nothing in this compact shall be construed as affecting the obligations of the
United States of America to Indian tribes.

Article VIII

Present perfected rights to the beneficial use of waters of the Colorado River
System are unimpaired by this compact. Whenever storage capacity of 5,000,000
acre feet shall have been provided on the main Colorado River within or for the
benefit of the Lower Basin, then claims of such rights, if any, by appropriators or
users of waters in the Lower Basin, against appropriators or users of water in the
Upper Basin shall attach to and be satisfied from water that may be stored not in
conflict with Article III.

All other rights to beneficial use of waters of the Colorado River System shall
be satisfied solely from the water apportioned to that Basin in which they are
situate.

Article IX

Nothing in this compact shall be construed to limit or prevent any State from
instituting or maintaining any action or proceeding, legal or equitable, for the
protection of any right under this compact or the enforcement of any of its
provisions.

Article X

This compact may be terminated at any time by the unanimous agreement of
the signatory States. In the event of such termination all rights established under it
shall continue unimpaired.

Article XI

This compact shall become binding and obligatory when it shall have been
approved by the Legislatures of each of the signatory States and by the Congress
of the United States. Notice of approval by the Legislatures shall be given by the
Governor of each signatory State to the Governors of the other signatory States
and to the President of the United States, and the President of the United States is
requested to give notice to the Governors of the signatory States of approval by the
Congress of the United States.

In Witness Whereof, The Commissioners have signed this compact in a single
original, which shall be deposited in the archives of the Department of State of the
United States of America and of which a duly certified copy shall be forwarded to
the Governor of each of the signatory States.

Done at the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, this Twenty-fourth day of
November, A.D. One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-Two.

W. S. Norviel,

W. F. McClure,

Delph E. Carpenter,

J. G. Scrugham,

Stephen B. Davis, Jr.,

R. E. Caldwell,

Frank E. Emerson.

Approved:

Herbert Hoover.

Legislative History

Source: L. 23: p. 684, � 1. CSA: omitted. CRS 53: � 148-2-1. C.R.S. 1963: � 149-2-1.