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Show CHAPTER X INTERSTATE RIVER INVESTIGATIONS AND COMPACTS By R, I. Meeker, Special Deputy State Engineer, Engineer for Colorado on Colorado, La Plata, North Platte, Rio Grande and Arkansas Interstate Water Controversies. PRESENT STATUS Average Yearly Discharge States Status at 8tate Affected River Line Acre-Feet Colorado .......... 11.000.000 Arizona, California, (Compact Concluded.) Colorado, Nevada. Ratified by leglsla-New Mexico. Utah tive act by all and Wyoming. states except Ari- zona. La Plata (tributary of Ban Juan)..... South Platte. 430.000 Colorado. Nebraska. North Platte.......(a) 725.000 Rio Grande. Arkansas 35.000 Colorado. New Mex- (Compact Concluded.) ico. Ratified by legisla- tive act by both states; awalti ni congressional ratification. (Compact Concluded.) Ratified by legislative act by Nebraska; compact framed after adjournment of Colorado Legislature in 1923. Engineering investigations completed. Hearings held in 1924 in three states; active negotiations under way. •15,000 Colorado. New Mex- Engineering investl-ico and Texas. gatlons completed. Hearings scheduled for 19 2 5; active negotiations under way. 305.000 Colorado, Kansas. Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. Litigation in progress. Engineering studies and negotiations under way. (a) Includes Laramle River, headwaters Encampment and Big Creek. Average yearly discharge at North Gate, 410,000 acre-feet. GENERAL STATEMENT Colorado's geographical position, astride the Continental Divide, with stream systems radiating to the four points of the compass, is the basic cause of interstate river litigation which Colorado has been compelled to face and fight for years in a pioneer way, because water consumption is an inevitable phase of irrigation reclamation. Colorado has never been plaintiff in any interstate suit. During the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, rapid and extensive application of water to the lands in Colorado and other states, together with a low |