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Show 286 INTERSTATE COMPACTS and providing for the equitable apportionment of the use of the waters of the Rio Grande among said States. The governors of said States shall request the President of the United States to name a rep- resentative to sit with said commission. " (b) The commission so named shall equitably apportion the waters of the Rio Grande as of conditions obtaining on the river and within the Rio Grande Basin at the time of the signing of this compact, and no advantage or right shall accrue or be asserted by reason of con- struction of works, reclamation of land, or other change in conditions or in use of water within the Rio Grande Basin or the Closed Basin during the time intervening between the signing of this compact and the concluding of such subsequent compact to the end that the rights and equities of each State may he preserved unimpaired: Provided, however, That Colorado shall not be denied the right to divert, store, and/or use water in additional amounts equivalent to the flow into the river from the drain from the Closed Basin. "(c) Any compact concluded by said commission shall be of no force or effect until ratified by the legislature of each of the signatory States and approved by the Congress of the United States. "article viii "(a) Subject to the provisions of this article Colorado consents to the construction and use of a reservoir by the United States and/or New Mexico, and/or Texas, as the case may be, by the erection of a dam across the channel of the Rio Grande at a suitable point in the canyon below the lower State bridge, and grants to the United States and/or to said States, or to either thereof, the right to acquire by purchase, prescription, or to1 exercise of eminent domain such rights of way, easements, and/or lands as may be necessary or convenient for the construction, maintenance, and operation of said reservoir and the storage and release of waters. "(b) Said reservoir shall be so constructed and operated that the storage and release of waters therefrom and the flowage of water over the spillway shall not impede or interfere with the operation, maintenance, and uninterrupted use of drainage works in the San Luis Valley in Colorado or with the flow and discharge of wTaters therefrom. "(c) The construction and/or operation of said reservoir and the storage and regulation of flow of waters thereby for beneficial uses or otherwise shall not become the basis or hereafter give rise to any claim of appropriation of waters or of any prior, preferred, or superior right to the use of any such waters. The purpose of said reservoir shall be to store and regulate the flow of the river. "(d) The United States, or the signatory States, as the case may be, shall control the storage and release of water from said reservoir and the management and operation thereof, subject to a compact be- tween the signatory States. " (e) Colorado reserves jurisdiction and control over said reservoir for game, fish, and all other purposes not herein relinquished. "(f) Colorado waives rights of taxation of said reservoir and ap- purtenant structures and all lands by it occupied. 1 So in 46 Stat. 767, 771. |