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Show The Compact r;r!:es the use of water throughout the Colorado Kiver Basin for the generation of power subservient to that for domestic and agricul- tural purposes. Further comment concerning litigation between Arizona and California, and the other States of the Colorado Paver Basin, relating to the fulfill- ing of the provisions of the Boulder Canyon Project Act, has been made in greater detail herein uider the heading "Interstate Litigation." La Plata River Compact. - This Compact between Colorado and New Mexico dividing the waters "of" the~La Plata River in southwestern Colorado and north- western New Mexico, was signed at Santa Fe by the commissioners represent- ing the two States on November 27, 1922, fallowing which Colorado ratified the Compact on April 13, 1923. and New'Mexico on February 7, 1923. The Com- pact was approved by the Congress of the United States on January 25* 1925* and promulgated by the President on January 29* 1925. In the negotiation of this Compact, no regard was given to the relative dates of priority and decreed quantities of water in the two States, the con- stitutions of which specifically adopt the doctrine of appropriation rather than the doctrine of riparian ownership, the attempt and intention being to apportion the waters of the La Plata River equitably between the two States. It so happens that practically all of the firm water produced by the river during the critical period of the irrigation season is claimed under Court decrees in New Mexico. Due to their relative geographical locations on the stream, later appropriations of water in Colorado exhausted practically the entire dependable stream flow, which resulted in a threat on the part of New Mexico to ask for relief against Colorado in the Supreme Court of the United States, which was the brsis for the consummation of the Compact. The Compact provides (a) that at all tiies between the first day of De- cember and the fifteenth day of the succeeding February, each State shall have the urirestricted right to the use of all the waters originating in such State, or flowing within its borders, (b) that at all other times each State shall have the unrestricted right to the use of all the waters within its boundaries on each day when the daily flow at the Colorado-New Mexico State line is 1O0 cubic feet per second or more, (c) that on all other days Colo- rado shall, deliver at the Colorado-New Mexico State line, for beneficial consumptive uses in New Mexico upon demand of Tfew Mexico, a quantity of wa- ter equivalent to one-half of the mean daily flow on the preceding day at the He sperms, gaging station, situated about 33 miies above the interstate line, but not to exceed ICO cubic feet per second* From the foregoing, it will be noted that Colorado must bear the bur- den of the* loss of water in transit when delivering one-half of the flow of the river down to the State line. This requirement has proved to be a serious burden at times since the initiation of the administration of the Compact iix 1925» The compact also provides that the total quantity of water in the river may be rotated between the States for predetermined periods of time by tb.e State Engineers of the two States for the more efficient use of the common supply. This practice has been in effect each year during periods of* low stream flow since 192l.|. As a result of this practice of rotation, the La Plata River and Cherry Creek Ditch, with priority No. 6 on the La Plata River in Colorado, sought to enjoin the water officials of -llii- |