OCR Text |
Show 139 The Colorado River Compact represents an accommodation of the conflicting interests of Upper and Lower Basins for the mutual benefit of both. The Lower Basin, especially California, was interested in reaching agreement over water rights among all the states in the entire River Basin so that congressional action could be obtained authorizing a dam on the Colorado River to control floods and to assure a constant supply of water (Ariz. Exs. 48, 51-53). Congress had expressed an interest in the problems of the Imperial Valley, Kincaid Act, 41 Stat. 600 (1920), and was aware of the flood control problems of the area (Fall-Davis Report, Ariz. Ex. 45). The Upper Basin, sympathetic as it may have been with the Lower Basin in its problems downstream, was nevertheless concerned lest construction of such a dam permit the Lower Basin to obtain a disproportionate amount of the water in the River by operation of the law of prior appropriation (Ariz. Exs. 49, 51). An agreement among the affected states could afford protection against this likely development. Thus, both the Upper and Lower Basins had an incentive to enter into a compact to achieve their respective desires (See Ariz. Ex. 51). The main bone of contention between the two Basins was the division of water. It was foreseen that, once the River was regulated, the Lower Basin would develop more rapidly than the Upper Basin. The problem of the Compact commissioners, therefore, was to safeguard the Upper Basin against this rapid development with its threat of vesting in the Lower Basin appropriative rights enforcible against the Upper Basin, and at the same time to allow sufficient water to the Lower Basin to ensure development there (Ariz. Exs. 49, 55). This brief history explains why the provisions of the Compact are addressed solely to the relations of basin to basin and not of state to state (See Ariz. Exs. 51, 55). Any |
Source |
Original Report: State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Imperial Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, California, City of San Diego, California, and County of San Diego, California |