Dramatis Personae - In Order Of Appearance

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover

 [ Picture of President Hoover ] Herbert Hoover was born to a Quaker family in Iowa in 1874, but spent his teen years in Oregon and California learning to be a mine engineer. He went overseas at the turn of the century to help develop gold mines in Australia and China, where he and his wife were caught up in the events of the 1900 Boxer Uprising. His mining textbook "Principles of Mining" was used as a standard for many years, and he and his wife performed the first American English translation of Georgius Agricola's 1556 "De Re Metallica". He first came to the national spotlight as America's food administrator during World War I - because of his campaign for conservation of food for the war effort, the word "hooverize" entered the American language, meaning to conserve on wheat or meat. He also gained international attention as the organizer of relief efforts in Europe following the Great War. After a stint as Secretary of Commerce for Presidents Harding and Coolidge, he won the Presidency in 1928 (six years after the signing of the Compact.)

Although Hoover is often blamed for the Great Depression, modern historians continue to question how much his policies contributed to the collapse and challenge his reputation as being uncaring about the Depression, pointing to several unsuccessful relief efforts undertaken in his last months as President that laid the groundwork for Franklin Roosevelt's sweeping New Deal reforms.

After his Presidency, Hoover remained a strident critic of governmental affairs and consulted on food relief efforts and government streamlining with many administrations. He died in 1964, one year after one of the most important decisions in Arizona v. California.

Analyzing The Compact

Purposes of the Compact

 According to this section of the Compact, the purposes of dividing the Colorado with the Compact include: [ Picture of rafters eating lunch in the Grand Canyon ]Notice that there is no mention of environmental preservation, conservation, or recreation!

The way that most people come into direct contact with the Colorado River today is through recreation, with nine million visitors a year coming to Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and another twelve million to Lake Powell. Imagine that you were a delegate from Arizona, Nevada or California to the Compact negotiations and you believed that one day Colorado River recreation would be a powerful industry in your state. Would you have approached the Compact differently? What would you have changed?
Or consider environmental concerns. The Colorado River now no longer reaches the ocean. It drizzles out into essentially nothing in a vast, unusuable swampy delta in Mexico. The Colorado used to be a very warm river, varying in temperature greatly with the seasons - now, because it passes through two dams which drain from the bottom of a reservoir, it is a very cold river. It also used to be full of silt and particulates, which are now filling up the bottom of man-made lakes instead of forming beach habitat in the Grand Canyon and further downstream. If you were the Arizona delegation, how would you go about writing the Compact to protect the environment of the Colorado?

Lee's Ferry

 Lee's Ferry was established by John Lee, a Mormon emigrant who had fled Utah when blame for the horrible Mountain Meadows Massacre was coming to be laid at his doorstep. The Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 came about when a rowdy wagon train of Arkansas "Gentile" emigrants were causing problems across South Utah, claiming that the federal troops that were following their train were coming to forcibly conquer the Utah territory until then completely held by the Mormons. (In fact, the federal troops had very tentative orders given by President Buchanan, who was not known for his strident action in the face of a crisis.)

Mormon settlers allied with Paiute Indians to ambush and kill every member of the wagon train, including women and children, about 120 people. Although there was speculation for many years about whether the Mormons or the Paiutes had committed the worst of the atrocity, John Lee, who had been the main Mormon contact with the settlers, started to fear that he would be captured for the crime and made a scapegoat. He fled Utah to Northern Arizona and established a ferry across the Colorado. For many years, there were only two ways across the raging Colorado - Lee's Ferry, and another ferry at Yuma. Lee eventually returned to Utah when he was very old and was tried for the crime. When the first trial ended in a jury deadlock, he plead guilty and was executed by firing squad.

When the Mountain Meadows Massacre memorial was being renovated in 1999, new bones were discovered on the site. Archaeologists who examined them concluded that the bones of women and children contained gunshot wounds to the back consistent only with Mormon rifles. (The Paiutes used hatchets to kill their victims.) The controversy continues to this day.

Mountain Meadows Massacre Archives Site

Arizona's Upper Basin

Not many people know that the Colorado River actually passes through Arizona well away from Nevada, California and the Grand Canyon. Near the Four Corners area at the northeast corner of the state, the Colorado crosses inside Arizona'a borders for the first time, making it the only state that is both on the Upper and Lower Basins.

Apportioning Water

This section is a little bit complicated, so a careful reading is necessary.

7.5 Million Acre-Feet Per Year For Each Basin

Section (a) states that the Upper Basin states will receive the rights to use 7.5 million acre-feet of water every year and the Lower Basin states will receive the same amount.

1 Million Extra Acre-Feet Per Year For The Lower Basin If Available

Section (b) says that the Lower Basin states can use up to a million more acre-feet per year if it is available. At the time of the signing of the Compact, the Upper Basin states used only a small fraction of their 7.5 million acre-feet allotment, and the Lower Basin states wanted the right to use more of the river if it was available to use.

Mexico's Allotment To Come From Surplus, Then Shared Equally

 At the time of the signing of the Compact, there was no agreement with Mexico about the Colorado River. This will come back to haunt Arizona v. California, for a reason we shall see soon. (It would also come back to haunt Mexico.)

Ten Years = 75-million Acre-Feet

 Section (d) describes the method by which the Upper Basin will measure its flow to the Lower Basin. The Upper Basin is required to send 75 million acre-feet to Lee's Ferry every ten years. This is meant to account for the possibility of dry years and wet years, in which 7.5 million acre-feet may not be available.

Resolving Disputes

 At the time the Compact was signed, there were two main ways to settle disputes that were intractable: litigation like Arizona v. California, and the political process of a legislature like a state legislature or Congress. Today, there are more tools available to lawyers, including manadatory mediation clauses in contracts. Absent Constitutional prohibition, the tools available to state governments are the same as available to private parties. What other way of disposing of conflicts do you think might have been useful to put into the compact? Do you think this would have avoided the decades-long Arizona v. California litigation?

Present Perfected Rights

This refers to the doctrine of prior appropriation, discussed more in-depth in the 1931 decision in Arizona v. California.

What got left out?

The Compact leaves out Mexico and the Indian tribes which live along the Colorado. What would have been the advantages of trying to address their claims? What would have been the disadvantages?

There is also one other small problem: The Upper Basin is allocated 7.5 million acre-feet per year. The Lower Basin is allocated 7.5 million acre-feet per year. Mexico eventually ended up being allocated 1.5 million acre-feet per year in a treaty signed in 1940. This anticipates a total yearly flow of 16.5 million acre-feet per year in the Colorado....

....and the Colorado's average flow is only 14.8 million acre-feet per year. Oops.

As it turned out, the Bureau of Reclamation figures which were used at the Compact were recorded in extremely wet years. Who does this mistake benefit? Who does it hurt?

Would you have supported the Compact if you were from California? Arizona? Mexico?

Is the Colorado navigable? Why does it matter?

This clause may appear somewhat nonsensical - why would it matter to the Compact states if the Colorado River was navigable or not? The answer lies in the U.S. Constitution. Because Congress has power over interstate commerce, it has traditionally exerted powerful control over rivers whose waters can be used for interstate trade. Because the Compact states didn't want Congress to fiddle with their agreeent, they put a declaration in that it was their position that the Colorado was not navigable. This ignored decades of steamboat trade and passenger travel on the Colorado, but it was necessary to at least try to keep Congress at bay.

Also, many states feared that California's overwhelming Congressional advantage would allow them, if Congress stepped in, to essentially rewrite the Compact to California's liking. This was to prove prophetic, though Arizona's powerful Senatorial delegation was also able to score some impressive victories.

State Water Officials

Most of the Colorado River Compact states put the responsibility for their water rights in the Secretary of State, who delegates it to a board or a commissioner.

Electricity Secondary

 Another interesting insight into the priorities of the Compact authors is that they believed the production of electricity should be secondary to the production of water for agricultural and domestic purposes. Interestingly, the producdtion of electricity at the dams along the Colorado by far outstrips the use of the Colorado for water purposes of any kind.

If you were a delegate to the Compact negotiations, and you believed electricity would become paramount, what would you have done to help ensure that your state had access to the electricity?

Historical Perspective

The year the Compact was signed, Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen, Alexander Graham Bell died, the "Reader's Digest" began publication and Sinclair Lewis' novel "Babbitt" was published. The New York Giants beat the New York Yankees in the World Series, holding Babe Ruth to a .118 batting average for the Series. Warren Harding was President.
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