COLORADO RIVER COMPACT
SIGNED AT SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO,
Ratified by act of
Congress December 21st, 1928
45 Stat. 1057
Congressional
Record, 70th Cong. 2d Sess. At 324-325
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, p. 171), and the Acts
of the Legislatures of the said States, have through their Governors appointed
as their Commissioners: W. S. Norviel
for the State of Arizona, W. F. McClure for the State of California, Delph E.
Carpenter for the State of Colorado, 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 apportionment
may be made.
ARTICLE II
As used in this compact:
(a) The term Colorado 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 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 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
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 can not 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 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.
(c) The provisions of this article shall not apply to or
interfere with 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
performance 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
Governors 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, New Mexico, this twenty‑fourth
day of November, A. D. One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty‑two.
W. S. Norviel
W. F. McClure
Delph E. Carpenter
J. G. Scrugham
Stephen B. Davis, Jr.
R. E. Caldwell
Frank C. Emerson
Approved:
Herbert Hoover
[Source: Updating the Hoover Dam Documents 1978, Appendix I, pgs. I-4-I-7]