OCR Text |
Show contract with other users to the derogation of California's apportionment, leaving it no water, save what it might have acquired by prior appropriation. While this provision is not a grant to California of this water, it is nevertheless a specification of apportionment for beneficial consumptive use each year, which specification limits the authority of the Secretary in making contracts for the sale and delivery of waters to users in other States. Ill To determine what the specification with respect to California's apportionment means, section 4 (a) of the act must be considered in connection with Article III (a) of the compact, that article being the basic specification for section 4 (a) of the act. Article III (a) and (b) of the compact provide: (a) There is hereby apportioned from the Colorado River system in perpetuity to the upper basin and to the lower basin, respectively, the exclusive beneficial consumptive use of 7,500,000 acre-feet of water per annum, which shall include all water necessary for the supply of any right which may now exist. (b) In adidtion to the apportionment in paragraph (a), the lower basin is hereby given the right to increase its beneficial consumptive use of such waters by 1,000,000 acre-feet per annum. . This provision apportions the waters of the Colorado River system between the upper and lower basins. California's apportionment is based on the annual beneficial consumptive use allotted to the lower basin. It will be noted that nothing in this section purports to divide the storage capacity in the lower basin and in Boulder Reservoir, or to divide the annual flow of the river, but that the only division made is of annual beneficial consumptive use. This being true, the result is that California's right given by section 4 (a) begins anew each year, and is a right to |
Source |
Original book: [State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde 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, defendants, United States of America, State of Nevada, State of New Mexico, State of Utah, interveners] : California exhibits. |