J. G. Scrugham for the State of Nevada.

Stephen B. Davis, jr. for the State of New Mexico,

R. E. Caldwell for the State of Utah,

Frank C. Emerson for the State of Wyoming,

who, after negotiations participated in by Herbert Hoover, appointed by the President as the representative of the United States of America, have agreed upon the following articles:

ARTICLE I

The major purposes of this compact are to provide for the equitable division and apportionment of the use of the waters of the Colorado River system; to establish the relative importance of different beneficial uses of water; to promote interstate comity; to remove causes of present and future controversies; and to secure the expeditious agricultural and industrial development of the Colorado River Basin, the storage of its waters, and the protection of life and property from floods. To these ends the Colorado River Basin is divided into two basins, and an apportionment of the use of part of the water of the Colorado River system is made to each of them, with the provision that further equitable apportionments may be made.

As used in this compact:

ARTICLE II

(a) The term "Clorado River system means that portion of the Colorado River and its tributaries within the United States of America.

(b) The term "Colorado River Basin" means all of the drainage area of the Colorado River system and all other territory within the United States of America to which the waters of the Colorado River system shall be beneficially applied.

(c) The term "States of the upper division" means the States of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

(d) The term "States of the lower division" means the States of Arizona, California and Nevada.

(e) The term "Lee Ferry" means a point in the main stream of the Colorado River 1 mile below the mouth of the Paria River.

(f) The terms " upper basin" means those parts of the States of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming within and from which waters naturally drain into the Colorado River system above Lee Ferry, and also all parts of said States located without the drainage area of the Colorado River system which are now or shall hereafter be beneficially served by waters diverted from the system above Lee Ferry.

(g) The term "lower basin means those parts of the States of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah within and from which waters naturally drain into the Colorado River system below Lee Ferry, and also all part of said States located without the drainage area of the Colorado River system which are now or shall hereafter be beneficially served by waters diverted from the system below Lee Ferry.

(h) The term "domestic use" shall include the use of water for household, stock, municipal, mining, milling, industrial and other like purposes, but shall exclude the generation of electrical power.

ARTICLE III

(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.

(c) 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 paragraphs (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 neces

sary 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).

(d) The States of the upper division 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 beginning with the 1st day of October next succeeding the ratification of this compact.

(e) The States of the upper division shall not withhold water, and the States of the lower division shall not require the delivery of water, which can not reasonably be applied to domestic and agricultural uses.

(1) Further equitable apportionment of the beneficial uses of the waters of the Colorado River system unapportioned by paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) may be made in the manner provided in paragraph (g) at any time after October 1, 1963, if and when either basin shall have reached its total beneficial consumptive use as set out in paragraphs (a) and (b).

(g) In the event of a desire for a further apportionment as provided in paragraph (f) any two signatory States, acting through their governors, may give joint notice of such desire to the governors of the other signaory States and to the President of the United States of America, and it shall be the duty of the governors of the signatory States and of the President of the United States of America forthwith to appoint representatives, whose duty it shall be to provide and apportion equitably between the upper basin and lower basin the beneficial use of the unapportioned, water of the Colorado River system as mentioned in paragraph (f), subject to the legislative ratification of the signatory States and the Congress of the United States of America.

ARTICLE IV

(a) Inasmuch as the Colorado River has ceased to be navigable for commerce and the reservation of its waters for navigation would seriously limit the development of its basin, the use of its waters for purposes of navigation shall he subservient to the uses of such waters for domestic, agricultural, and power purposes. If the Congress shall not consent to this paragraph, the other provisions of this compact shall nevertheless remain binding.

(b) Subject to the provisions of this compact, water of the Colorado River system may be impounded and used for the generation of electrical power, but such impounding and use shall be subservient to the use and consumption of such water for agricultural and domestic purposes and shall not interfere with or prevent use for such dominant purposes.

(c) The provisions of this article shall not apply to or interfere with the the regulation and control by any State within its boundaries of the appropriation, use, and distribution of water.

ARTICLE V

The chief official of each signatory State charged with the administration of water rights, together with the director of the United States Reclamation Service and the director of the United States Geological Survey shall cooperate, ex officio:

(a) To promote the systematic determination and coordination of the facts as to flow, appropriation, consumption, and use of water in the Colorado River basin, and the interchange of available information in such matters. (b) To secure the ascertainment and publication of the annual flow of the Colorado River at Lee Ferry.

(c) To perform such other duties as may be assigned by mutual consent of the signatories from time to time.

ARTICLE VI

Should any claim or controversy arise between any two or more of the signatory States: (a) with respect to the waters of the Colorado River system not covered by the terms of this compact; (b) over the meaning or perform. ance of any of the terms of this compact; (c) as to the allocation of the burdens incident to the performance of any article of this compact or the delivery of waters as herein provided; (d) as to the construction or operation of works within the Colorado River basin to be situated in two or more States,

or to be constructed in one State for the benefit of another State; or (e) as to the diversion of water in one State for the benefit of another State; the governors of the States affected, upon the request of one of them, shall forthwith appoint commissioners with power to consider and adjust such claim or controversy, subject to ratification by the legislatures of the States so affected.

Nothing herein contained shall prevent the adjustment of any such claim or controversy by any present method or by direct future legislative action of the interested States.

ARTICLE VII

Nothing in this compact shall be construed as affecting the obligations of the United States of America to Indian tribes.

ARTICLE VIII

Present perfected rights to the beneficial use of waters of the Colorado River system are unimpaired by this compact. Whenever storage capacity of 5,000,000 acre-feet shall have been provided on the main Colorado River within or for the benefit of the lower basin, then claims of such rights, if any, by appropriators or users of water in the lower basin against appropriators or users of water in the upper basin shall attach to and be satisfied from water that may be stored not in conflict with Article III.

All other rights to beneficial use of waters of the Colorado River system shall be satisfied solely from the water apportioned to that basin in which they are situated.

ARTICLE IX

Nothing in this compact shall be construed to limit or prevent any State from instituting or maintaining any action or proceeding, legal or equitable, for the protection of any right under this compact or the enforcement of any of its provisions.

ARTICLE X

This compact may be terminated at any time by the unanimous agreement of the signatory States. In the event of such termination all rights established under it shall continue unimpaired.

ARTICLE XI

This compact shall become binding and obligatory when it shall have been approved by the legislatures of each of the signatory States and by the Congress of the United States. Notice of approval by the legislatures shall be given by the governor of each signatory State to the governor of the other signatory States and to the President of the United States, and the President of the United States is requested to give notice to the governors of the signatory States of approval by the Congress of the United States.

In witness whereof, the commissioners have signed this compact in a single original, which shall be deposited in the archives of the Department of State of the United States of America, and of which a duly certified copy shall be forwarded to the governor of each of the signatory States.

Done at the city of Santa Fe, N. Mex., this 24th day of November, A. D. 1922.

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the Legislature of the State of Nevada, jointly, at its thirty-first session, commencing on the 15th day of January, 1923, a majority of all the members elected to each house of said legislature voting in favor thereof, that the said Colorado River compact be,

and the same is hereby, approved by the Legislature of the State of Nevada; and be it further

Resolved, That the Governor of Nevada be, and he is hereby, authorized and requested to give notice of the foregoing approval to the governor of each of the other signatory States and to the President of the United States.

THE STATE OF WYOMING, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Cheyenne, February 9, 1923.

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,

Washington, D. C.

SIR: Complying with article 11 of the Colorado River compact, permit me to advise you that the Seventeenth Legislature of the State of Wyoming has approved the pact and that I have affixed my signature to the measure. This constitutes formal acceptance on the part of the State of Wyoming.

Sincerely yours,

WILLIAM B. Ross, Governor.

Secretary HOOVER (continuing). The Federal Government has not as yet ratified the compact, as it would naturally await the action of the seven States.

The compact was primarily, in fact, wholly, inaugurated with a view of an apportionment of the water between the different States, with the hope of avoiding the interminable litigation that has grown out of interstate conflicts as to water rights in the West. There have been, I think, two cases on the Colorado River before the United States Supreme Court, or on tributaries of the Colorado. One of them had occuplied a matter of about 11 years; and as there were opportunities for, probably, 100 such disputes, the general feeling throughout the several States was that, if some method could be devised by which litigation could be avoided, then the development of the river would be expedited by perhaps a period extending up to a quarter of a century.

You, of course, all understand that interstate rights as to water has not been entirely clear, either from a legislative or from a judicial point of view. Two Supreme Court doctrines, in the main, have grown up in connection with western streams, one of them leaning toward the principle of equitable apportionment between States and the other leading toward a recognition of a priority of beneficial use as between States. Beyond this again are riparian rights, which hold still in the West in certain cases-and possibly to the Colorado River.

So that, with these conflicting doctrines in front of us, it is difficult to see how that section would avoid a vast amount of litigation, unless some other alternative could be found. And as you all know, the Constitution makes a provision for interstate compacts, which, upon ratification by the legislatures of the several States, and by Congress, amount to statutory law.

Mr. RAKER. May I ask, so as to clear up the matter and so that the committee may have the benefit of the attitude of the States, was their statement of their position taken down and transcribed. and have you a public document showing the attitude of the several States?

Secretary HoOVER. We have a transcript of the proceedings of the commission. It runs into a very large volume of hearings, and it contains representations from the different States and the State officials and others and embodies a vast amount of material. It can be furnished to the committee if you wish.

Mr. RAKER. Has that been printed so that it will be accessible? Secretary HOOVER. No; it has not been printed.

Mr. RAKER. Is it likely to be?

Secretary HOOVER. No; it is not likely to be printed; because the commission had no appropriation.

The sum of it, however, is the compact itself. That is the net result. The nature of the disputes, in this special case, when they are boiled down resolved themselves into a primary conflict between what are termed the "upper basin States " and the "lower basin States "; the upper basin States being Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico on the upper tributaries of the Colorado; the lower Basin States being Arizona, Nevada, and California.

These two basins are separated by 600 miles of canyou and arid country, incapable of development; and there is, therefore, a very natural geographic and physical division between the two areas.

The division also extends into their dissimilarity of economic and agricultural conditions. The application of water in the upper basin would be for a different type of agriculture from that below, and is likely to be of much slower development. The tendency, of course, in all irrigation development is to develop the lower reaches of the rivers first, largely because that is the most economical and usually possess the largest area of available land.

The States in the upper basin, therefore, in the face of the doctrine of prior right by beneficial application, have been anxious to secure an establishment of their position, realizing that their actual development would come later than that of the lower States. In other words, they did not want to see the whole of the waters of the river applied in the lower basin and then find themselves confronted with a fait accompli that would make it impossible for them to develop their own States.

Therefore the upper basin States have systematically opposed all plans for development of the river, including the development of the Boulder Dam, or any other method of development, until their rights should be recognized by the lower States.

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The compact recognized that situation frankly and divided, by agreement, the drainage area into two areas; one of which is termed upper basin" and the other the "lower basin," and proceeded to apportion the flow of water, not as between the individual States but as between the upper basin and the lower basin.

Roughly, a total sum of water in the drainage area is on average somewhere from 19,000,000 to 22,000.000 acre-feet per annum. An apportionment was made of seven and a half million acre-feet to the upper basin and eight and a half million acre-feet to the lower basin, or a total preliminary apportionment of 16,000,000 acre-feet per annum.

Provision was made for an allocation at a distant period of the remainder of the water, it being felt that at the present time it was impossible to determine accurately what the situation might be, but that progress and development could proceed with assurance on the basis of a preliminary division and that the reserve of water would allow subsequent adjustments.

Mr. SINNOTT. Mr. Secretary, what is the line of demarcation between the upper and the lower basins?