OCR Text |
Show from the deliveries required by the schedn3.es are set up as debits or cre- dits to the State making the deliveries* Such credits and debits are al- lowed to accumulate* subject to certain conditions. In the case of Colo- rado., departures of 100*000 acre-feet from the scheduled deliveries on the debit side in any one year, or an accumulated departure in the same amount due to natural causes, ars allowable. Deliveries of water in excess of the required scheduled deliveries are used to reduce debits and* in the absence of debits* are allowed to accumulate as creditsa The credits may be reduced either by spill from Elephant Butte Reservoir^ above El Paso* or by departures on the debit side in the delivery of water from the re- quired scheduled deliveries*. The Compact provides that debits may accumu- late in any amount* so long as an equivalent quantity of water is held in storage in reservoirs to be constructed in Uew Mexico and Colorado in the future, provided that any portion of that wa^er which otherwise would have spilled from Elephant Butte Reservoir becones the property of the owners of the new reservoirs, and may be used in any way they see fit. Deliveries of water by Colorado and Hew Mexico in excess of the quan- tities required by the schedule are accumulated in the Elephant Butte Re- servoir as credits to the upper States, so long as the water remains in storage in Elephant Butte Reservoir. Should the stage of storage in Elephant Butte Reservoir cause an unusable spill of water from that reservoir $ the water which is in storage to the credit of the upper States is reduced by the amount of such spill* In order that the area above Elephant Butte Re- servoir shall have practically exclusive right to the consumption of the water which would otliervrt.se spill from Elephant Butte Reservoir t the avera-ge annual release from that reservoir for beneficial*consumptive use is fixed at 79O3OOO acre-feet* which includes the 60*000 acre^feet required to be delivered to Hexico. at El Paso under the existing international treaty. For the same reason, project storage in that reservoir is fixed by the Compact; at 2j633*860 acre-feet, which was the original capacity of Elephant Butte Reservoir. The Compact places the administration in the hands of the Rio Grande Compact Commission* consisting of the State Engineers of Colorado and New Mexico* and a representative to be appointed by the Governor of Texas. Tlnis Commission is authorized and required to maintain a number of paging sta- tions along the river system* and to compile and exchange the records ob- tained therefrom. Within certain limitations, the Oommissioners, by unani- mous action., may make minor modifications in the provisions of the Compact which later years may show to be desirable. Such modifications, however, must be made within the fundamental provisions of the Compact; and they be- come operative only vihen unanimous action has been ratified by the Legis- latures of the States and consented to by the Congress of the United States. It was the intent of the drafters of the Compact that the actual adminis- tration of the waters of the river* to which each State is entitled; should be administered by the water officials of such State without the interfer- ence of a super-authority. The Compact also makes provisions for a repre- sentative of the United States Government on the Commission. This'repre- sentative* however, will be without voting authorityt The Compact has been ratified by the Legislatures of the three States -119- |