| OCR Text |
Show 4 UPDATING THE HOOVER DAM DOCUMENTS (3) Article II(b) defines the "Colorado River Basin" as "all of the drainage area of the Colorado River System and all other territory wihin the United States of America to which the water of the Colorado River System shall be beneficially applied." (4) Article II(c) defines the term "States of the Upper Division" as "the States of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming." (5) Article II(d) defines the term "States of the Lower Division" as "the States of Arizona, California, and Nevada." (6) Article II(e) defines "Lee Ferry" as "a point in the mainstream of the Colorado River one mile below the mouth of the Paria River." (7) Articles II(f) and (g) define the terms "Upper Basin" and "Lower Basin," thus dividing the Colorado River Basin into these two basins. (8) Article II(h) defines "domestic use" as including "the use of water for household, stock, municipal, mining, milling, industrial, and other like purposes, but shall exclude the generation of electrical power." (9) Article III (a) apportions from the Colorado River System, in perpetuity, the exclusive beneficial consumptive use of 7.5 maf/yr to each of the two Basins for beneficial consumptive use. (10) Article III(b) provides that, in addition to the III (a) apportionment, the Lower Basin was given the right to increase its beneficial consumptive use by 1 maf/yr. (11) Article III(c) provides that if (as has proved to be the case) the United States shall recognize the right of Mexico to the use of any waters of the Colorado River System, such waters shall first be supplied from the waters which are surplus over and above the aggregate of the quantities specified in paragraphs III (a) and (b). It also provided that if such surplus shall prove insufficient for this purpose, the Mexican deficiency is to be borne equally by the Upper and Lower Basins, and whenever necessary the States of the Upper Division shall deliver at Lee Ferry water to supply one-half the deficiency so recognized in addition to that provided in paragraph (d). (12) Article IH(d) provides that the Upper Division States "will not cause the flow of the river at Lee Ferry to be depleted below an aggregate of 75,000,000 acre-feet for any period of 10 consecutive years..." (13) Article III(e) provides that the Upper Division States shall not withhold water, and the Lower Division States shall not require the delivery of water, which cannot reasonably be applied to domestic and agricultural use. (14) Article IV(a) provides that since the Colorado River had ceased to be navigable the use of Colorado River water for navigation shall be subservient to the uses of such waters for domestic, agricultural and power purposes. (15) Article IV(b) provides that the impoundment and use of waters for the generation of electrical power shall be subservient to the use and consumption of such water for agricultural and domestic purposes. (16) Article VII provides that nothing in the Compact shall be construed as affecting the obligations of the United States to Indian Tribes. (17) Article VIII provides that present perfected rights to the beneficial use of waters of the Colorado River System are unimpaired by this compact. (18) Article XI provides that the compact shall become binding and obligatory when it shall have been approved by the legislatures of each of the signatory States and by the Congress of the United States. Although the river had produced an average flow for the two decades preceding 1922 that would have accommodated 16 maf/yr in beneficial consumptive use annually from the waters of the Colorado River System for the two Basins, the Upper Basin (by virtue of Article IH(d) of the Compact) assumed the burden of drier cycles occurring thereafter. Hence, the Lower Basin has received a guaranteed 10-year (not annual) minimum flow of 75 maf at the Lee Ferry compact point. The Upper Basin became a guarantor in the sense that its depletions may not reduce the 10-year aggregate flow below the 75 maf at the Lee Ferry compact point. B.4 Compact Approval The Compact was signed by each of the seven Basin States. Six of the seven States ratified the Compact in 1923 but Arizona did not ratify it until 1944, 21 years later. In 1925, four ratifying States modified the requirement for seven State approval and ratified the Comoact which was to become effective upon approval |
