§ 41-12-301 — Generally

Wyoming § 41-12-301

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming
• Title 41: Water
• Ch. 12: INTERSTATE COMPACTS
• Art. 3: COLORADO RIVER COMPACT

Text

Ratification and approval is hereby given to the Colorado River
Compact as signed at the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the
twenty-fourth day of November, A.D. 1922, by Frank C. Emerson
the duly appointed commissioner for the state of Wyoming, under
and in accordance with the authority of the act of the sixteenth
Wyoming legislature approved February 22, 1921, entitled: "An
act providing for the appointment of a commissioner on behalf of
the state of Wyoming to negotiate a compact or 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 tributaries, and the rights of said states,
and the United States thereto", which compact was also signed by
the duly authorized commissioners of the states of Arizona,
California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, and approved
by the representative of the United States, which Colorado River
Compact is in full as follows:
COLORADO RIVER COMPACT
Signed at Santa Fe, New Mexico,
November 24, 1922 _________
COLORADO RIVER COMMISSION,
Herbert Hoover, chairman.
W. S. Norviel, commissioner for the state of Arizona.
W. F. McClure, commissioner for the state of California.
Delph E. Carpenter, commissioner for the state of Colorado.
J. G. Scrugham, commissioner for the state of Nevada.
Stephen B. Davis, Jr., commissioner for the state of New
Mexico.
R. E. Caldwell, commissioner for the state of Utah.
Frank C. Emerson, commissioner for the state of Wyoming.
Clarence C. Stetson, executive secretary, department of
commerce, Washington, D.C.
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 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
(a) As used in this compact:
(i) The term "Colorado River system" means that
portion of the Colorado River and its tributaries within the
United States of America;
(ii) 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;
(iii) The term "states of the upper division" means
the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming;
(iv) The term "states of the lower division" means
the states of Arizona, California and Nevada;
(v) The term "Lee Ferry" means a point in the main
stream of Colorado River one mile below the mouth of the Paria
River;
(vi) 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;
(vii) 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;
(viii) 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 seven
million five hundred thousand (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 (1,000,000)
acre-feet 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 seventy-five million (75,000,000) acre-feet for any period of
ten (10) 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 (2) 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 governors 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 purposes 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
(a) 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 cooperate,
ex officio:
(i) 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.
(ii) To secure the ascertainment and publication of
the annual flow of the Colorado River at Lee Ferry.
(iii) To perform such other duties as may be assigned
by mutual consent of the signatories from time to time.
Article VI
(a) Should any claim or controversy arise between any two
(2) or more of the signatory states:
(i) with respect to the waters of the Colorado River
system not covered by the terms of this compact;
(ii) over the meaning or performance of any of the
terms of this compact;
(iii) 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;
(iv) as to the construction or operation of works
within the Colorado River basin to be situated in two (2) or
more states, or to be constructed in one (1) state for the
benefit of another state; or
(v) as to the diversion of water in one (1) state for
the benefit of another state; the governors of the states
affected, upon the request of one (1) 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.
(b) 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
(a) Present perfected rights to the beneficial use of
waters of the Colorado River system are unimpaired by this
compact. Whenever storage capacity of five million (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 water 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.
(b) 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 C. Emerson.
Approved:
(signed) Herbert Hoover.