Law of the River

1902 Reclamation Act

The 1902 Reclamation act, also known as the Newlands Act after the chief sponsor, Senator Francis Newlands of Nevada, allowed the federal government to study and construct irrigation works in 16 Western States and territories. The efforts were initially funded from the sales of public lands in those states. Large projects, like Hoover Dam, were funded by congressional appropriations. Shortly after the act was signed into law by President Teddy Roosevelt, the Reclamation Service was established by Interior Secretary Hitchcock within the USGS to carry out the purposes of the act. In 1907 the Reclamation Service became a separate entity within the Department of Interior and in 1923 it was renamed the Bureau of Reclamation. The act was later modified multiple times, most notably by 1982 Reclamation Reform Act (link). Reclamation operates about 180 projects in the American West. Reclamation provides a brief history of the act here. [[1]]

1908 Supreme Court Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564 (1908)

The 1908 Supreme Court case of Winters underpins all Indian water rights and thus is included in this list. The Supreme Court found that Congress implicitly created a federal “reserved” water right whenever it created a reservation of any kind, e.g., National Forest, Military Base, Native American Reservation. Federal reserved water rights are unique in that they cannot be lost through lack of use, and have a priority dating to the time of the creation of the reservation. Quantification of these rights has occurred through litigation and increasingly through Congressionally approved and funded voluntary settlements.

In 1964 in Arizona v. California, the Court quantified the size of Winters rights in Arizona (and CA?)_as the ‘potentially irrigable acreage’ of the reservation. That decree (text) awarded 700,000 af of water to 5 different mainstem Arizona tribes, Cocopah, Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT), Fort Mohave. Later adjustments to the Decree added additional acreage and water rights to the reservations (2005 Decree).

John Shurts covers the history of Winters in his book derived from his Phd Dissertation [[2]] (link). University of Utah Professor Daniel McCool put Indian Water rights in the larger context of water use in Command of the Waters, Iron Triangles, Federal Water Development and Indian Water [[3]] (link). Other Law Review articles? Tribal water rights are discussed further below.

1928 Boulder Canyon Project Act (45 Stat. 1057)

The Boulder Canyon Project Act (text) was enacted to control floods, improve navigation, regulate flows, store and deliver water for the reclamation of lands, and to generate electricity. It funded and approved the construction of Hoover Dam and the All-American Canal contingent on the approval of the Colorado River Compact. Given Arizona’s refusal to ratify the Compact because of disputes over the Gila River and its desired allocation, the act allowed for approval if 6 states, including California, ratified the compact provided that California limited itself to 4.4 maf /year of Colorado River water. The act reserved for Arizona complete use of its tributaries. In 1963, the US Supreme Court in Arizona v. California (below) found that Congress via the act had apportioned the flow of the Colorado River among California, Nevada and Arizona.

Nathanson’s Chapter I provides many details on the Act (link). Many documents relating to water and power contracts signed can be found in Reclamation’s compilations of Law of the River documents. These include Hoover Dam Documents 1933 (link), Hoover Dam Documents 1948 (text) Updating Hoover Dam Documents in 1978 (text), 2008 Colorado River Documents (text). The original act was modified in 1940 by the Boulder Canyon Adjustment Act (text) which modified the power rate structure agreed to in the original power contracts.

Pulitzer Prize winning Los Angeles Times writer Michael Hiltzik covered the construction and history of Hoover Dam in his 2010 book, Colossus [link]

1931 California Seven Party Agreement Text

The Secretary of the Interior requested California internally agree on the priorities of Colorado River water users before issuing water contracts. In 1931 the parties provided this agreement. The first three priorities totaled 3.85 maf/year of water for agricultural uses in the Palo Verde Irrigation District, the Yuma Project (Reservation Division), and the Imperial and Coachella Valley irrigation districts. The 4th priority was 550 kaf/year for the Metropolitan Water District. These first four priorities totalled 4.4 maf/year. Three additional priorities to Metropolitan, San Diego, Imperial, Coachella and Palo Verde added another 962 kaf/year in use for a total of 5.362 maf/year. Due to ambiguities in the original agreement, in 200x, the parties agreed to modifications in the Quantification Settlement Agreement (link).

media:UHDD_1978_Snips_California_Seven_Party_Agreement.pdf

1944 Treaty with Mexico (link)

Chapter XIV in HDD 1948 is devoted to the Mexican Water Treaty media:HDDocs_1948_Chapter_XIV_The_Mexican_Water_Treaty.pdf [[4]]

1956 Colorado River Storage Project Act (70 Stat. 105) (text)

The 1956 Act approved the construction of Glen Canyon Dam (26.2 maf, completed 1963), Navajo Dam and Reservoir on the San Juan (1.7 maf, completed 1962), Flaming Gorge Dam and Reservoir on the Green River (3.8 maf, completed 1962) and the Aspinall Unit on the Gunnison River (previously Curecanti Unit) (3 Dams – Blue Mesa 940 kaf, Crystal 26 kaf, and Morrow Point Dams 117 kaf). The act created an Upper Colorado River Basin Fund to collect revenues from power, repayments etc. It also funded 11 other ‘participating projects’. The act approved studies on 25 additional projects, including, notably, the San Juan-Chama Project, a transbasin diversion from the San Juan River to the Rio Grande. Finally, it authorized up to $760m to fund the projects.

Nathanson (1978) Chapter I has a short section on the act (text) .

1963 Supreme Court Opinion on Arizona v. California and 1964 Decree

CRDocs_2008_Chapter_11_Arizona_v._California.pdf

2003 Interim Surplus Criteria

FEIS ROD

2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead

FEIS ROD

CRDocs_2008_Chapter_2_Interim_Guidelines.pdf

200x Navajo Dam EIS and ROD

FEIS ROD

200x Flaming Gorge Dam and ROD

FEIS ROD

2019 Drought Contingency Plan

Documents Table/Picture

Additional Resources

• Chapter 1 of Nathanson

media: UHDDocs_1978_Chapter I Summary of the Law of the River.pdf

• Reclamation's Law of the River Page

[[5]]

• Imperial Irrigation District's Law of the River Page

• Colorado Water Center Law of the River Document

• Important Law Review Articles

• IBWC Minutes

[[6]]

• Minutes of the 1922 Compact Meetings

[[7]]