RESOLUTIONS AND MEMORIALS [Senate Joint Resolution No. 2-Senator Getchell] No. 1-Joint Resolution by the senate and assembly of the legislature of the State of Nevada. [Approved January 24, 1923] ex-Gov. WHEREAS, It is currently reported that the Honorable Endorsing Albert B. Fall, the secretary of the department of the Campbell of interior of the United States, has resigned his office, to be Arizona for effective on the first day of March next; and WHEREAS, In the opinion of the members of this legislature, it is highly important that some person familiar with the needs and wishes of the western portion of the United States shall be appointed in his stead; and WHEREAS, We believe that the Honorable Thomas E. Campbell, formerly governor of the State of Arizona, is in entire sympathy with and has full knowledge of the needs and wishes of the people of the west; therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of Nevada, That this body respectfully call to the attention of the President of the United States the superior qualifications of the Honorable Thomas E. Campbell for the office of secretary of interior, and we would respectfully recommend his appointment to said eminent position; and that it be further Resolved, That the secretary of state be instructed upon its adoption to transmit a copy of same by wire to President Harding, Senators Oddie and Pittman, and Congressman Arentz. [Assembly Joint Resolution No. 1-Clark County Delegation] No. 2-Assembly Joint Resolution, relative to approving Colorado river compact. [Approved January 27, 1923] secretary of the interior of Colorado river WHEREAS, Pursuant to appropriate action of their respec- Approval tive legislatures the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming did heretofore compact appoint commissioners to negotiate and enter into a compact or agreement providing for an equitable distribution and apportionment among the said states of the waters of the Colorado river and of streams tributary thereto; and WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States did by an act approved August 19, 1921 (42 Statutes at Large, page 171), Colorado river compact Approval of grant its consent to the making of such compact or agreement, upon condition that a suitable person, to be appointed by the President of the United States, should participate in said negotiations as the representative of and for the protection of the interests of the United States and upon the further condition that any such compact or agreement shall not be binding or obligatory upon any of the parties thereto unless and until the same shall have been approved by the legislature of each of said states and by the Congress of the United States; and Text of Colorado river compact WHEREAS, The commissioners representing the said states after negotiations participated in by Herbert Hoover appointed by the President as the representative of the United States, did, on the twenty-fourth day of November, 1922, at the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, agree upon and sign a compact, which was then and there approved by the representative appointed by the President of the United States, and which is in the words and figures following, to wit: COLORADO RIVER COMPACT The States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, having resolved to enter into a compact under the Act of the Congress of the United States of America approved August 19, 1921 (42 Statutes at Large, page 171) and the Acts of the Legislatures of the said States, have through their Governors appointed as their Commissioners: W. S. Norviel Frank C. Emerson for the State of Arizona 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. ARTICLE II As used in this compact: Colorado (a) The term "Colorado River System" means that portion Text of of the Colorado River and its tributaries within the United river 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 one mile below the mouth of the Paria River. (f) The term "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 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 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 one million 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 aggre compact Text of Colorado river compact gate 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 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). (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 ten consecutive years reckoned in continuing progressive series beginning with the first 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 cannot reasonably be applied to domestic and agricultural uses. (f) 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 first, 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 signatory 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 divide 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 be 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. |