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Show eral of Nebraska has acknowledged the validity of the South Platte River Compact between Colorado and Nebraska, and that Nebraska fully intends to maintain its obligations faithfully under the Compact. Although it does not attack the validity of the Compacts Wyoming has.expressed the view that, had Nebraska not entered into the Compact with Colorado (by the terms of which Nebraska foregoes the right to the use of a larger share of the waters of the South Platte River than that to which she may have been entitled), any burden which may fall upon Wyoming as a result of an adverse decision in the pending North Platte River suit would be of less magnitude than it would have been except for the South Platte River Compact between Colorado and Nebraska. Rio Grande Compact. - The States of Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas have been conducting negotiations since before 1929 with a view to adjust- ing their respective claims on the waters of the Rio Grande above Fort Quitman. This interstate problem has "hung like a pall11 over the water users of the upper Rio Grande basin in the three States for more than kO years. As a result of previous negotiations, the three States entered into a tem- porary Compact designed as a truce to maintain the status quo en the upper river on February 12S 1929. ¦¦ This Compact was ratified by Colorado on April 9, 1929* by New Mexico on March 9, 1929, and by Texas on May 2, 1929. There- after it was approved by the Congress of the United States on June 1, 1930* and promulgated by the President on June 17, 1930. This temporary Compact * which covered a period of 5 years, provided for the equitable apportionment, among the three States, of the waters of the Rio Grande above Fort Quitman. It also declared that* since the United States G-overnment had disposed of 60,000 aore-feet of water per year in per- petuity to the Republic of Mexico, in the settlement of claims preferred by that nation against the United States, it follows as a corollary that the United States should defray the cost of the discharge of any obligation thus assumed; as, for example, the repayment to the three States for the loss of water taken from these States in settlement of the Federal Government's as- sumed obligation to the Republic of Mexico* For the purpose of meeting this obligation, at least in part, and for the economic development and conserva- tion of the waters of the Rio Grande Basin, and to aid in the settlement of the interstate controversy, the States agreed in thi s temporary compact that: (a) It is of primary importance that the area in Colorado, known as the Closed Basin, be drained; (b) that the water thus recovered be added to the flow of the river; and, that, in this connection, a reservoir for equat- ing the .flow be constructed near the Colorado-New Mexico State line - all at the ejcpense of the Federal Government. The temporary Compact also provided that, until the construction of the aforementioned Closed Basin Drain and the State line reservoir, but not subsequent to June 1, 1935* the date fixed for the expiration of the Compact, Colorado would not cause, or permit, the water supply at the. Colorado-New Mexico S^fcate line to be impaired by new or increased diversions or storage within tine State of Colorado, unless and until such depletion was offset by increased drainage return* The temporary Compact also provided for the maintenance of the then status qiao on the Rio Grande in the three States above Fort Quitman, and that -116- |