| OCR Text |
Show 544 INTERSTATE ADJUDICATIONS By Article III, the apportionment is made: "(a) There is hereby apportioned from the Colorado River system in perpetuity to the upper basin and to the lower basin, respectively, the exclusive beneficial consumptive use of 7,500,000 acre-feet of water per annum, which shall include all water necessary for the supply of any rights which may now exist." "(b) In addition to the apportionment in Paragraph (a), the lower basin is hereby given the right to increase its beneficial consumptive use of such waters by 1,000,000 acre-feet per annum." "(d) The States of the upper division [Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming] will not cause the flow of the river at Lee Ferry to be depleted below an aggregate of 75,000,000 acre-feet for any period of 10 consecutive years reckoned in continuing progressive series be- ginning with the first day of October next succeeding the ratification of this compact." Article III does not in terms apportion as between the upper and the lower basin the surplus waters m excess of the amounts specifically allocated. But it recognizes in Paragraph (c) that there may be "surplus" waters in the River, applicable to the lower basin.7 2. The Colorado River compact does not purport to apportion be- tween the States of the lower basin the share of each in the waters of the Colorado River system; but Boulder Canyon Project Act makes some provision for such apportionment. By §4(a) it provides that: "California, by act of its legislature, shall agree irrevocably and unconditionally with the United States and for the benefit of the States of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyo- ming, as an express covenant and in consideration of the passage of this Act, that the aggregate annual consumptive use (diversions less returns to the river) of water of and from the Colorado River for use in the State of California, including all uses under contracts made under the provisions of this Act and all water necessary for the supply of any rights which may now exist, shall not exceed four million four hundred thousand acre-feet of the waters apportioned to the lower basin States by paragraph (a) of Article III of the Colorado River compact, plus not more than one-half of any excess or surplus waters unapportioned by said compact, such uses always to be subject to the terms of said compact." And that section authorizes Arizona, California, and Nevada to enter into an agreement which, among other things, shall provide: "(1) That of the 7,500,000 acre-feet annually apportioned to the lower basin by paragraph (a) of Article III of the Colorado River compact, there shall be apportioned to the State of Nevada 300,000 acre-feet and to the State of Arizona 2,800,000 acre-feet for exclusive beneficial consumptive use in perpetuity, and (2) that the State of Arizona may annually use one-half of the excess or surplus water unapportioned by the Colorado River compact, and (3) that the State 7 Paragraph (c) provides : "If, as a matter of international comity, the United States of America, shall hereafter recognize in the United States of Mexico any right to the use of any waters of the Colorado River system, such waters shall be supplied first from the waters which are surplus over and above the aggregate of the quantities specified in para- graphs (a) and (b) ; and if such surplus shall prove insufficient for this purpose, then, the burden of such deficiency shall be equally borne by the upper basin and the lower basin, and whenever necessary the States of the upper division shall deliver at Lee Ferry water to supply one-half of the deficiency so recognized in addition to that provided in paragraph (d)." |
