Vol. 32, No. 5, 8. Upper Colorado River Basin Compact: Sharing the Shortage.

• Author: By Hon. Greg Hobbs

Wyoming Bar Journal

2009.

Vol. 32, No. 5, 8.

Upper Colorado River Basin Compact: Sharing the Shortage

Wyoming LawyerIssue: October, 2009Upper Colorado River Basin Compact: Sharing the ShortageBy Hon. Greg Hobbs The Colorado River runs overfull and skimpy, depending on the year, the decade, the century or the millennium. Drought punctuated by intermittent flood has scorched the expectations of human beings from the Native Americans to the Hispanics to all other immigrants who have settled into this harsh and beautiful land from the river's sources in Wyoming and Colorado to the Sea of Cortez.

The early 21^st Century drought reminds us once again that the law of nature and the law of man require understanding, reconciliation, and continued community problem-solving. Sharing the river's shortage and its sometimes plenty is the primary function of the 1922 Colorado River Compact and the 1948 Upper Colorado River Basin Compact.

Bashing the 1922 negotiators for making a compact in the wettest of wet times miserably under-appreciates their achievement. In fact, they were children of the 1890's drought who luckily enjoyed a surge of early 20^th Century flows. They could not have chartered the future of interstate and international water sharing among the seven basin states and Mexico except on the basis of reservoir storage in the really good years to make survival possible in the really bad ones. Bathtub rings in Lake Powell and Lake Mead testify that half-empty glasses are at least half full.

Dividing the Waters at Lee Ferry

At Bishop's Lodge in Santa Fe, the 1922 negotiators scrutinized two significant water measurement numbers. In 1902 the Colorado River produced 9,110,000 acre-feet and, well more than doubling that, 25,400,000 acre-feet in 1909. The average for the period 1899-1920 was 16,400,000 acre-feet. Such a figure explains the basic 1922 compact yearly perpetual consumptive beneficial use apportionment of 7.5 million acre-feet to the upper basin states and 7.5 million acre-feet to the lower basin states at the Lee Ferry measuring point, plus 1.5 million acre-feet to Mexico under the 1944 Treaty, totaling 16.5 million acre-feet.

Looking at the 1902 low number and having already gotten a good start at water development, the 1922 lower basin negotiators wanted a yearly guarantee at Lee Ferry for their water uses. The upper...