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Show 554 INTERSTATE ADJUDICATIONS which California is to receive under the contracts with the Secretary of the Interior. By § 6 of the Act the dam and reservoir are directed to be used "first, for river regulation, improvement of navigation, and flood control; second, for irrigation and domestic uses and satisfaction of present perfected rights . . .; and third, for power." Section 5 provides that "no person shall have or be entitled to have the use for any purpose of the water stored as aforesaid except by contract made as herein stated." Section 5 also provides that the Secretary of the Interior may con- tract for the storage of water and for delivery thereof upon charges which will provide revenue, and § 5 (c) directs that "Contracts for the use of water . .. shall be made with responsible applicants there- for who will pay the price fixed by the Secretary with a view to meeting the revenue requirements herein provided for." Acting under this authority the Secretary of the Interior has substantially completed the project and has entered into contracts, so the bill of complaint alleges, for the delivery of 5,362,000 acre feet of stored water to California corporations, and for the financing and construction of Parker and Imperial Dams and the All American Canal to facilitate the use of this water in California. Without more detailed statement of the facts disclosed, it is evident that the United States, by Congressional legislation and by acts of its officers which that legislation authorizes, has undertaken, in the asserted exercise of its authority to control navigation, to impound, and control the disposition of, the surplus water in the river not already appropriated. The defendant states contend, and Arizona does not deny, that the natural dependable flow of the river is already over- appropriated, and it does not appear that without the storage of the impounded water any substantial amount of water would be available for appropriation. The decree sought has no relation to any present use of the water thus impounded which infringes rights which Arizona may assert subject to superior but unexercised powers of the United States. Cf. Wisconsin v. Illinois, 278 U.S. 36*7; see Arizona v. California, supra, 464; United States v. Arizona, supra, 183. The prayer is for a decree of equitable division of the privilege of future appropriation. The relief asked, and that which upon the facts alleged would alone be of benefit to Arizona, is a decree adjudicating to petitioners the "un- clouded . . . rights to the permanent use of" the water. Such a decree could not be framed without the adjudication of the superior rights asserted by the United States. The "equitable share" of Arizona in the unappropriated water impounded above Boulder Dam could not be determined without ascertaining the rights of the United States to dispose of that water in aid and support of its project to control navigation, and without challenging the dispositions already agreed to by the Secretary's contracts with the California corporations, and the provision as well of § 5 of the Boulder Canyon Project Act that no person shall be entitled to the stored water except by contract with the Secretary. It is argued that the constitutional power of the United States to exert any control over the water stored at Boulder Dam is subject to the rights of Arizona to an equitable share in the unappropriated water "until such a time as commerce is actually moving on the river," |