Colorado River Compact
Encyclopedia
The Colorado River Compact is a 1922 agreement among seven U.S. state
s in the basin
of the Colorado River in the American Southwest governing the allocation
of the water rights to the river
's water
among the parties of the interstate compact
. The agreement was signed at a meeting at Bishop's Lodge, near Santa Fe, New Mexico
, by representatives of the seven states the Colorado river and its tributaries pass through on the way to Mexico.
, New Mexico
, Utah
and Wyoming
) and the Lower Division (Nevada
, Arizona
and California
). The compact requires the Upper Basin states not to deplete the flow of the river below 75000000 acre.ft during any period of ten consecutive years. Based on historical rainfall patterns, the amount specified in the compact was assumed to allow a roughly equal division of water between the two regions. The states within each basin were required to divide their 7500000 acres (30,351.5 km²) foot per year (289 m³/s) share allotment among themselves. The compact enabled the widespread irrigation
of the Southwest, as well as the subsequent development of state and federal water works projects under the United States Bureau of Reclamation
. Such projects included the Hoover Dam
and Lake Powell
.
The current specific annual allotments in the Lower Basin were established in 1928 as part of the Boulder Canyon Project, while the current specific annual allotments in the Upper Basin were established by the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact of 1948. They are:
In addition to this, 1500000 acre.ft/year of Colorado River water is allocated to Mexico, pursuant to the treaty relating to the use of waters of the Colorado and Tijuana river
s and of the Rio Grande
, signed February 3, 1944, and its supplementary protocol signed November 14, 1944. Also, the lower basin can get an additional 1100000 acre.ft/year.
in 1917 to promote development along the river. In 1921, Congress authorized the states to enter into a compact for allocation of the river resources. The agreement was approved by Congress in 1922, the same year it was signed. As part of the compact, the name of the river was standardized along its length. Previously the portion of the river upstream from its confluence with the Green River
had been known locally as the "Grand River". The change was opposed by many local residents in Utah and Colorado, and the new name was enforced locally by acts of the state legislatures in both states in the early 1920s.
The agreement was controversial even at the time, however. Arizona, for example, was dissatisfied with the lower basin allotment and refused to ratify the agreement until 1944 http://www.cap-az.com/about/index.cfm?action=history&subSection=5. The specific allotments were disputed by Arizona until the United States Supreme Court upheld the amount in the 1963 decision in Arizona v. California
. The agreement ended many years of dispute, clearing the way for the Central Arizona Project, authorized by Congress in 1968.
There is also concern regarding Nevada’s increasing population and the state’s water usage. Nevada, with the smallest water allocation in the lower river basin, may find in the near future that the water supplied by the Colorado River will not meet the state’s growing needs . However in 2008 Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy said that she does not support a water reallocation; because all of the states in the river basin have experienced growth she says that it is unlikely that Nevada’s allocation would increase, and it could even decrease. Instead Nevada, like California, may have to work on conservation methods as well as finding other water sources to support the state’s growing population.
in the region is in fact a return to historically typical patterns. The decrease in rainfall has led to widespread dropping of reservoir levels in the region, in particular at Lake Powell
, created by the Glen Canyon Dam
in 1963, where the exposure of long-inundated canyons has prompted calls for the deliberate permanent extinction of the reservoir.
In December, 2007, a set of interim guidelines on how to allocate Colorado River water in the event of shortages was signed by the Secretary of the Interior. The guidelines are described as interim because they extend through 2026, and are intended to allow the system operators to gain experience with low-reservoir conditions, while the effect of climate change on the Colorado River's flow undergoes further evaluation. The agreement specifies three levels of shortage conditions, depending on the level of Lake Mead
:
On August 15, 2008, Arizona Senator John McCain
called for the compact to be renegotiated. Due to the Senator's position as the Republican Party nominee in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election and Colorado's swing state
status, criticism of the compact may have gained national significance.
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
s in the basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
of the Colorado River in the American Southwest governing the allocation
Resource allocation
Resource allocation is used to assign the available resources in an economic way. It is part of resource management. In project management, resource allocation is the scheduling of activities and the resources required by those activities while taking into consideration both the resource...
of the water rights to the river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
's water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
among the parties of the interstate compact
Interstate compact
An interstate compact is an agreement between two or more states of the United States of America. Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution provides that "no state shall enter into an agreement or compact with another state" without the consent of Congress...
. The agreement was signed at a meeting at Bishop's Lodge, near Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, by representatives of the seven states the Colorado river and its tributaries pass through on the way to Mexico.
Law of the River
The Colorado River is managed and operated under numerous compacts, federal laws, court decisions and decrees, contracts, and regulatory guidelines collectively known as "The Law of the River."Provisions
The compact divides the river basin into two areas, the Upper Division (comprising ColoradoColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
and Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
) and the Lower Division (Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
and California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
). The compact requires the Upper Basin states not to deplete the flow of the river below 75000000 acre.ft during any period of ten consecutive years. Based on historical rainfall patterns, the amount specified in the compact was assumed to allow a roughly equal division of water between the two regions. The states within each basin were required to divide their 7500000 acres (30,351.5 km²) foot per year (289 m³/s) share allotment among themselves. The compact enabled the widespread irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
of the Southwest, as well as the subsequent development of state and federal water works projects under the United States Bureau of Reclamation
United States Bureau of Reclamation
The United States Bureau of Reclamation , and formerly the United States Reclamation Service , is an agency under the U.S...
. Such projects included the Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...
and Lake Powell
Lake Powell
Lake Powell is a huge reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona . It is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing of water when full...
.
The current specific annual allotments in the Lower Basin were established in 1928 as part of the Boulder Canyon Project, while the current specific annual allotments in the Upper Basin were established by the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact of 1948. They are:
| Upper Basin, 7.5 million acre·ft/year (293 m³/s) total | |||
| Colorado | 51.75%* | 3.86 million acre·ft/year (150.7 m³/s) | |
| Utah | 23.00%* | 1.71 million acre·ft/year (67.0 m³/s) | |
| Wyoming | 14.00%* | 1.04 million acre·ft/year (40.8 m³/s) | |
| New Mexico | 11.25%* | 0.84 million acre·ft/year (32.8 m³/s) | |
| Arizona | 0.70% | 0.05 million acre·ft/year (2.0 m³/s) | |
| *Percentages with a star are a percentage of the total after Arizona's 0.05 million are deducted. Arizona's percentage is of the total. |
|||
| Lower Basin, 7.5 million acre·ft/year (293 m³/s) total | |||
| California | 58.70% | 4.40 million acre·ft/year (172 m³/s) | |
| Arizona | 37.30% | 2.80 million acre·ft/year (109 m³/s) | |
| Nevada | 4.00% | 0.30 million acre·ft/year (12 m³/s) | |
In addition to this, 1500000 acre.ft/year of Colorado River water is allocated to Mexico, pursuant to the treaty relating to the use of waters of the Colorado and Tijuana river
Tijuana River
The Tijuana River is an intermittent river, 120 mi long, on the Pacific coast of northern Baja California in Mexico and southern California in the United States.-Location:...
s and of the Rio Grande
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
, signed February 3, 1944, and its supplementary protocol signed November 14, 1944. Also, the lower basin can get an additional 1100000 acre.ft/year.
History
The compact was the fruit of several years of negotiations among the states. The seven states had previously formed the League of the SouthwestLeague of the Southwest
The League of the Southwest was a 1919 alliance formed among U.S. states in the basin of the Colorado River with the intention of promoting development, in particular irrigation of cropland for agriculture, along the river...
in 1917 to promote development along the river. In 1921, Congress authorized the states to enter into a compact for allocation of the river resources. The agreement was approved by Congress in 1922, the same year it was signed. As part of the compact, the name of the river was standardized along its length. Previously the portion of the river upstream from its confluence with the Green River
Green River (Utah)
The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing...
had been known locally as the "Grand River". The change was opposed by many local residents in Utah and Colorado, and the new name was enforced locally by acts of the state legislatures in both states in the early 1920s.
The agreement was controversial even at the time, however. Arizona, for example, was dissatisfied with the lower basin allotment and refused to ratify the agreement until 1944 http://www.cap-az.com/about/index.cfm?action=history&subSection=5. The specific allotments were disputed by Arizona until the United States Supreme Court upheld the amount in the 1963 decision in Arizona v. California
Arizona v. California
Arizona v. California is a set of United States Supreme Court cases, all dealing with water distribution from the Colorado River.When a dispute arises between two states, the case is filed for original jurisdiction with the United States Supreme Court. This is one of the very limited circumstances...
. The agreement ended many years of dispute, clearing the way for the Central Arizona Project, authorized by Congress in 1968.
Future developments and issues
Since the development of the Colorado River Compact, California has been using the surplus water that has been left over from other states; however with increasing population growth in the Southwest there is concern that this surplus soon will not exist for California’s use. In 2001, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt signed an interim agreement, determining how water surplus from the Colorado River will be allocated between the states and creating a fifteen year period to allow California time to put conservation methods in place to reduce the state’s water usage and dependence on Colorado River water.There is also concern regarding Nevada’s increasing population and the state’s water usage. Nevada, with the smallest water allocation in the lower river basin, may find in the near future that the water supplied by the Colorado River will not meet the state’s growing needs . However in 2008 Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy said that she does not support a water reallocation; because all of the states in the river basin have experienced growth she says that it is unlikely that Nevada’s allocation would increase, and it could even decrease. Instead Nevada, like California, may have to work on conservation methods as well as finding other water sources to support the state’s growing population.
Colorado River Compact and the environment
Development was the prime concern of the Colorado River Compact, when signed in 1922. Unfortunately this does not take environmental issues into consideration. Using and reusing the river water as well as frequent damming results in an unfavorable environment for native fish species. Dams block fish passage, reduce silt deposition, and change water temperatures, all negatively impacting the natural ecosystem. The high water usage has also caused the river delta, located in Mexico, to significantly deteriorate. Once a lush and green area from the high amounts of silt deposit, the plentiful ecosystem has now all but disappeared. In order to begin to reduce the damage more water will need to be appropriated Mexico.Criticism and renegotiation
In recent years, the compact has become the focus of even sharper criticism, in the wake of a protracted decrease in rainfall in the region. Specifically, the amount of water allocated was based on an expectation that the river's average flow was 16.4000000 acre.ft per year (641 m³/s). Subsequent tree ring studies, however, have concluded that the long-term average water flow of the Colorado is significantly less. Estimates have included 13.2000000 acre.ft per year (516 m³/s), 13.5000000 acre.ft per year (528 m3/s), and 14.3000000 acre.ft per year (559 m3/s). Many analysts have concluded that the compact was negotiated in a period of abnormally high rainfall, and that the recent droughtDrought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
in the region is in fact a return to historically typical patterns. The decrease in rainfall has led to widespread dropping of reservoir levels in the region, in particular at Lake Powell
Lake Powell
Lake Powell is a huge reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona . It is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing of water when full...
, created by the Glen Canyon Dam
Glen Canyon Dam
Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona in the United States, just north of Page. The dam was built to provide hydroelectricity and flow regulation from the upper Colorado River Basin to the lower. Its reservoir is called Lake Powell, and is the second...
in 1963, where the exposure of long-inundated canyons has prompted calls for the deliberate permanent extinction of the reservoir.
In December, 2007, a set of interim guidelines on how to allocate Colorado River water in the event of shortages was signed by the Secretary of the Interior. The guidelines are described as interim because they extend through 2026, and are intended to allow the system operators to gain experience with low-reservoir conditions, while the effect of climate change on the Colorado River's flow undergoes further evaluation. The agreement specifies three levels of shortage conditions, depending on the level of Lake Mead
Lake Mead
Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States. It is located on the Colorado River about southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona. Formed by water impounded by the Hoover Dam, it extends behind the dam, holding approximately of water.-History:The lake was...
:
- Light shortage. When the surface elevation at Lake Mead is below 1,075 feet (relative to mean sea level) but above 1050 feet (320 m), the Lower Basin states will receive 7.167000000 acre.ft per year (4.4000000 acre.ft to California, 2480000 acre.ft to Arizona, and 0.287000000 acre.ft to Nevada).
- Heavy shortage. When the surface elevation of Lake Mead is below 1050 feet (320 m) but above 1025 feet (312.4 m), 7083000 acre.ft per year will be delivered to the Lower Basin states, 4400000 acre.ft for California, 2400000 acre.ft for Arizona, and 283000 acre.ft for Nevada.
- Extreme shortage. The most severe shortage considered in the interim guidelines is when the level of Lake Mead drops below 1025 feet (312.4 m), in which event 7000000 acre.ft per year will be delivered to the Lower Basin states (4.4000000 acre.ft to California, 2320000 acre.ft to Arizona, and 280000 acre.ft to Nevada).
On August 15, 2008, Arizona Senator John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
called for the compact to be renegotiated. Due to the Senator's position as the Republican Party nominee in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election and Colorado's swing state
Swing state
In United States presidential politics, a swing state is a state in which no single candidate or party has overwhelming support in securing that state's electoral college votes...
status, criticism of the compact may have gained national significance.
Further reading
- Norris Hundley. Water and the West: The Colorado River Compact and the Politics of Water in the American West (University of California Press, 2009) 415 pp. the standard scholarly history; ISBN 978-0-520-26011-5
- Jason Robison. "Review of Hundley, Water and the West," H-Water, H-Net Reviews. September, 2010. online