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Show RECENT WATER COMPACTS* By Clifford H« Stone* Director Colorado Water Conservation Board It should be noted at the outset that the subject assigned to me is confined to "Recent Interstate Water Compacts.1' It is quite unnecessary to discuss in this company basic principles and recognized compact procedure. The Western State Engineers* and those who are accustomed to confer with them in these meetings * have had occasion not only to study* but in most cases* to participate in the making of* interstate agreements affecting wa- ter, • However, the adjustment of interstate relation with respect to water has assumed a new and highly important.phase in recent years. The.compacts of twenty five years ago* and for a score of years thereafter, served large- ly to provide for an amicable division of water among states and to remove causes, present and future* which might lead to controversy. The attainment of an equitable water apportionment and the incorporation of devices for ap- propriate administration were the major objectives. These purposes* of course¦* are outstanding today. But present and potential conflicts between the uses and the purposes for the control of water within, a basin» sometimes involving also water quality, and the olash between federal and state juris** dictions present troublesome and difficult problems in recent years. This situation is .precipitated by the ultimate phase of development in many major river basins through multiple use projects and the necessity of integrating the operation of various physical facilities on a river. This brings into the picture ths necessity of coordinating, the plans and programs of federal agencies engaged in the work of water resource development. Do- mestic, irrigation and industrial uses of water are controlled and regulated in the West under state laws. But the control of water in the interest of navigation is within the jurisdiction of the federal government under the Commerce Clause of the Constitutions and the recent interpretation of this clause bfy the courts and often its application by federal agencies under various aots of Congress have been extended to include flood control and in some cases hydro-electric production. Since many proposed compacts concern rivers and their tributaries which serve beneficial consumptive uses in arid sections but which flow into lower areas where flood control* the preserva- tion of navigable capacities and often the production of power are necessary or desirable, it is at once evident that the clash between federal and state juris diet; ions presents an issue for solution. A water compact affords one of the-means of composing this conflict and of assuring an appropriate ap- plication, of state water laws. . Even as early as 1922* when the Colorado River Compact was signed at Santa Fe^ New Mexico, at a time when the problem was not as acute as it is today* this phase of adjustment was reoognized in Article IV" of the Com** pact which readst * Before Association of Western State Engineers at Denver* Colorado, Octo- ber 25* 191+3. -72- |