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Show -88- SCME PROBLEMS OF THE INTERSTATE WATER WAR JAMES GRA.FTON ROGERS (Colorado Ear Association) (Vol. 26 - 1923) The contests between the Western States for irrigation water from in- terstate streams is not a new subject to Colorado lawyers^ "but some fur- ther discussion of the matter can certainly be tolerated. The tournament has interest from several viewpoints. To the historical mindj the theme carries the student along in the main currents of constitutional law* and we s-ee -the Supreme Court in its loftiest mood* as an arbiter between sover- eignties* To the purely juristic mind5 the subject holds first class and practically unexplored problems in legal theory. Indeed, the present stage of interstate waber law is notably meagre in any satisfactory framework of principles and its results are so far as baldly practical as a chamber of commerce arbitration. To the romantic-minded student* the contest involves immense stakes, principles of superlative dignity and the most delicate diploma-tic situationst For the practical-minded.- particularly in Colorado, the conflict is very real. It involves not only the prospect of future development, but an actual threat to present established irrigabion insti- tutions. This paper is intended to be a somewhat discursive review of these .suggestions* with an idea of encouraging interest rather than propa- gating any particular views of the writer. The subject is peculiarly acute in Colorado* Practically speaking* every stiream in this state flows outwards, and we receive no water from any other state. The exceptions are negligible. The Cimarron River, ris- ing in Oklahoma, cuts across Baca County, in that most deserted southeast corner of Colorado, for a dozen mileso It supplies no irrigation there or below* The San Juan River, at the southwestern corner of Colorado- returns into our borders for a mile or two in the desert* but its waters are mainly of Colorado origin anyway. The Snake River, while still a rivulet* follows the Wyoming-Colorado line in our northwest corner* The Green River cuts , this same angle* lath these minute exceptions, Colorado is a headwater state and therefore always a prospective defendant. This state has other characteristics important to our subject. Its dependence, upon irrigation is no greater perhaps than in the case of other Western States, but its hostage to fortune, the agricultural d eve lopment which i-t has risked upon the permanence of irrigation, is surpassing. One- twentieth of the land in this state is under actual irrigation, a propor- tion which exceeds any other state. California has a larger total acreage in irrigation, but California is a much larger state, and, moreover, much of its irrigation is from wells. In stream irrigation, which- only, con- cerns our legal problem, Colorado has half as much again land under irri- gation as any other commonwealth. Our leadership, if not our wisdom* in |
