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Show HUNGRY HORSE PREDICTION 33 a tributary of the Colorado, and transport it over the Continental Divide to the Rio Grande watershed. The geographical details of this scheme offered interesting situations. Once over the divide the San Juan water would reach the city of Albuquerque on the Rio Grande River. The Rio Grande flowed southward to Elephant Butte Reservoir, far down the state. From that reservoir water was let out to supply farms along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of El Paso, and from there it went on down to lands along the river forming the border be- tween Texas and the Republic of Mexico. Texas and New Mexico had an agreement over use of the Rio Grande water, but New Mexico had been less than scrupulous in abiding by it. The trouble was growing worse, and Texas was making menacing gestures. By getting Colorado River water into the Rio Grande, New Mexico would be in a good position to honor its commitments to Texas. There were numerous legal opinions to the effect that the Colorado River Compact prohibited the trans- porting of Colorado River waters beyond the borders of the basin states, but final settlement of that question was still far in the future. New Mexico wanted its three projects, and it wasn't going to worry about legal problems until it was forced to defend itself either in Congress or the courts. A letter from New Mexico to the Interior Department on the matter was signed by the state's' engineer, John H. Bliss, but all, or at least the major part of it, had been written by Colorado's Judge Stone, for the language was almost identical in places with that in Colorado's comments on the crsp.34 New Mexico requested that the crsp plan be revised |
