OCR Text |
Show SOUTH PLATTE RIVER COMPACT 323 succeeding year, subject to the following reservations, limitations, and conditions: (a) In addition to the water now diverted from the lower section of the river by the present perfected appropriations Colorado hereby reserves the prior, preferred, and superior right to store, use, and to have in storage in readiness for use on and after the 1st day of April in each year an aggregate of thirty-five thousand acre-feet of water to be diverted from the flow of the river in the lower section between the 15th day of October of each year and the 1st day of April of the next succeeding year, without regard to the manner or time of making such future uses, and diversions of water by said Nebraska canal shall in no manner impair or interfere with the exercise by Colorado of the right of future use of the water hereby reserved. (b) Subject at all times to the reservation made by subparagraph (a) and to the other provisions of this article, said proposed canal shall be entitled to divert five hundred cubic feet of water per second of time from the flow of the river in the lower section, as of priority of appropriation of date December 17, 1921, only between the 15th day of October of any year and the 1st day of April of the next succeeding year upon the express condition that the right to so di- vert water is and shall be limited exclusively to said annual period and shall not constitute the basis for any claim to water necessary to supply all present and future appropriations in the upper section or present appropriations in the lower section and those hereafter to be made therein as provided in subparagraph (a). 3. Neither this compact nor the construction and operation of such a canal nor the diversion, carriage, and application of water thereby shall vest in Nebraska, or in those in charge or control of said canal or in the users of water therefrom, any prior, preferred, or superior servitude upon or claim or right to the use of any water of the South Platte River in Colorado from the 1st day of April to the 15th day of October of any year or against any present or future appropriator or user of water from said river in Colorado during said period of every year, and Nebraska specifically waives any such claims and agrees that the same shall never be made or asserted. Any surplus waters of the river, which otherwise would flow past the interstate station during such period of any year after supplying all present and future diversions by Colorado, may be diverted by such a canal, subject to the other provisions and conditions of this article. 4. Diversions of water by said canal shall not diminish the flow necessary to pass the interstate station to satisfy superior claims of users of water from the river in Nebraska. 5. No appropriations of water from the South Platte River by any other canal within Colorado shall be transferred to said canal or be claimed or asserted for diversion and carriage for use on lands in Nebraska. 6. Nebraska shall have the right to regulate diversions of water by said canal for the purposes of protecting other diversions from the South Platte River within Nebraska and of avoiding violations of the provisions of Article IV; but Colorado reserves the right at all times to regulate and control the diversions by said canal to the ex- tent necessary for the protection of all appropriations and diversions |