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Show sovereigns for priority in the use of waters of the Colorado River system, sub- stituted in its place orderly development under the compact within their re- spective jurisdictions, withdrew for all future time their implied assent to the rule of "first come,, first served," and destroyed the uniformity of that doctrine in.the region of the Colorado River if not elsewhere in the arid west, A striking feature of the compact, to which Congress took no exception3 is its provision that navigation of the river shall be subordinate to the use of its waters for household, stock, municipal, mining, milling, industrial and other like purposes and also secondary to its use for agricultural and power purposes. This leaves little room to doubt that "navigable capacity," if any there be, will fade with the development of the river notwithstanding any temporary improvement resulting from equalization of the flow or from flood control. However, future navigation of the Colorado River is not seriously contemplated- The compact does not divide or apportion the waters of the river among the Statesj nor will it otherwise affect the flow of the stream for many years to come* It does divide the river into an upper and a lower basin, theoretically apportioning nearly half of the annual flow to each; but. this is followed by a provision that the upper basin shall not withhold nor the lower basin require delivery of water at any time unless and until it can be actually devoted to beneficial use for domestic and agricultural purposes. It is well known that many years will pass before the upper basin can possibly assimilate all the water so recommitted to it« Until then, the people in either basin will take as much water from the river as they want without any more restriction than if no csompact had been made*. But the people of the six States cannot acquire aggregate rights of prior appropriation in either basin inconsistent with the distribution made by the compact less the amount of water, if any, required to supply Arizona and Mexico with their just portion-'Whatever it may be-of the flow of the river. It is apparent that the negotiators of the compact estimated forty years as the minimum time for either basin to develop any actual need of all of the waters allotted to it; for the compact provides that further apportionment, may be made after October 1, 19&3* "*¦*" and when either basin shall have reached its total beneficial consumptive use." Wken development in the upper basin shall have become such that all the water set apart for it can be "reasonably applied to domestic and agricultural uses,1* -then the people in that basin (exclusive of those in upper Arizona not within -the compact) may retain any amount of water necessary to make up their quota, even if in one or more dry years they should take all of the waters of the river except the amount ne.oessary to meet the legal demands of Arizona and Mexico; provided only that they do not in any teji'-year period lessen the flow to the lower basin below ten times the annual apportionment of water made to it hy the compact. Under this concession the upper basin States retain their natural advantage and throw upon the lower basin States and the United States -the burden of catching, storing and preserving the flood waters of the river fzrom year to year, or suffering the consequences of shortage in dry years. This appears to be so even though the retention of water in the upper basin for irrigation should deplete the flow actually recmired for domestic use in -the lower basin; for the compact makes no declaration of subservient- uses except as to navigation and water power. The natural advantage of the |
