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Show 42 TWENTY-SECOND BIENNIAL REPORT ditions of economic pressure of these eventful years. Hence, in the compact method, a worship of legal precedent is replaced by constructive treatment of difficult water problems which vary with each river-system, according to physical and cultural conditions. First publicly broached in 1919 by Mr. Carpenter, the compact idea was applied to the Colorado and La Plata interstate river conflicts, and in less than five years' time gives hope of wide adoption to interstate relations in other fields, such as fisheries, water power development, municipal needs, etc Two eminent engineers have placed the stamp of approval on water compacts as a means of settlement of water disputes, viz., Herbert Hoover and Elwood Mead. Other states, east and south, are resorting to this method of water settlement. Texas and New Mexico are endeavoring to adjust a water problem on the Pecos River, a tributary of the Rio Grande. The three states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are seeking to protect by compact their potable waters and make an apportionment of the waters of the Delaware River. Within the present month (December, 1924) the Department of the Interior has announced its cordial sympathy and support of the interstate compact method of river settlement for the western United States. While the table at the head of this article gives a concise summary of Colorado interstate compacts, it is thought advisable to make a few brief statements concerning the various rivers where compacts have been formulated, or are being negotiated. Colorado River Compact The text of the Colorado River Compact will be found in full in the 21st Biennial Report of the State Engineer of Colorado (1921-1922), pp 16-20. For that reason only Article I of the Compact is quoted, since the major purposes of the Compact are therein outlined. "The major purposes of this compact are to provide for the equitable division and apportionment of the use of the waters of the Colorado River System; to establish the relative importance of different beneficial uses of water; to promote interstate comity; to remove causes of present and future controversies; and to secure the expeditious agricultural and industrial development of the Colorado River Basin, the storage of its waters and the protection of life and property from floods. To these ends the Colorado River Basin is divided into two basins, and an apportionment of the use of part of the water of the Colorado River System is made to each of them with the provision that further equitable annortionments may be made." Under the terms of the Colorado River Compact future Colorado irrigation development will not suffer the water embargoes and delays similar to those laid upon the San Luis Valley or North |
