OCR Text |
Show 203 and cannot be the basis of a decree in this suit. California's contentions appear in Appendix 4 of her brief, and in summary present these three points: (1) The Arizona contract is dependent upon Arizona's ratification of the Colorado River Compact and Arizona has not effectively ratified the Compact. The reasons for the rejection of this contention appear supra, at pages 166-167 of this Report. (2) No water right exists under the Arizona contract because "no right to the use of water can be acquired in the absence of a specific project, or use lawfully initiated and diligently prosecuted."65 If this argument means that the possession of a water right is necessary before one is eligible for a delivery contract, it puts the cart before the horse. In effect it says, no contract without a water right. Under the Act, however, the reverse is true: no new water right without a contract. Congress certainly understood in 1928 that all of the water to be impounded in Lake Mead was not then appropriated. I cannot ascribe to the Congress an intention to bring all further development in the Lower Basin to a halt, as this contention would require me to do. On the other hand, if the California contention means only that a water delivery contract does not amount to a perfected water right, then it is not an attack on the contract at all. I do not think it necessary to decide whether the various contractees have water rights in addition to their contractual rights for the delivery of water from Lake Mead; I have not been shown any situation in which the distinction, if any, is material in this case. Since interstate rights and priorities are controlled by the delivery contracts themselves (see pages 151 e-f seq., supra) and since intrastate rights and priorities, including the question whether a contractual right constitutes a water right, are controlled by state law, with 65Calif. Appendix 4, p. 5. |
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 |