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Show Calif. Ex. 7513-B: Letter from Commissioner of Reclamation to the Secretary of the Interior, July 17, 19^7 (FP, pp. 2-5)^ approved and adopted by the Secretary of the Interior (FP, p. 5). July 19, 19^7* contained in H.R. Doc. No. 419, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. (19W This letter points out (FP, p. 3): "The water-right situation in the Colorado River Basin is highly controversial. The several documents bearing upon the matter--The Colorado River compact, the Boulder Canyon Project Act, The California Self-limitation Act, the various contracts for the delivery of water from Lake Mead, and the Mexican Treaty--are, in important particulars, variously interpreted by the States which are parties to them. In the realization that it was not within the scope or authority of the report to attempt to decide such controversial questions, a deliberate effort was made in its preparation to avoid any interpretation of these documents. . . . Many of the comments by the basin States, particularly a number by Arizona, Colorado, and California, appear to be intended not so much to criticize the report as to explain or advance the commenting State's positions with respect to the division of water of the Colorado River system." The letter concludes, inter alia (FP, p. 5): M[T]he States of the upper Colorado River Basin and States of the lower Colorado River Basin should be encouraged to proceed expeditiously to determine their respective rights to the waters of the Colorado River consistent with the Colorado River Compact." According to the Draft Report, the Secretary's water delivery contracts had, by this time, forever allocated the "mainstream" water in the lower basin without reference to the Colorado River Compact which is held to be irrelevant. The secretarial contract -/ These pages were also designated by Arizona. 111-35 |