WEBVTT - The Colorado River Compact 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.960 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.520 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.360 Chuck and Jerry's here too. We're just a few river 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.360 rats hanging out thinking about rivers and such. 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.160 That's right. If you live in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:27.920 New Mexico, Arizona, or California, this one's This one's for you. 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:33.560 Yeah. Or if you're interested in water supply, this one's 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:40.760 for you as well. If you like really difficult interstate treaties, 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:42.600 I think you'll like this one as well. 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:47.120 There's one person out there that's like, oh my god, guys, finally, 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:49.640 So yes. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:51.879 We're talking about the Colorado River. We're talking about the 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.840 compact of water sharing among those states, the basin states 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.440 they call them, which is a pretty cool name of 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.640 sharing the water that comes out of the Colorado River, 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.520 which is about almost a fifteen hundred mile long river 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.880 that winds through the southwestern US all the way into Mexico, 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:18.920 and it helps feed all of those states, most of 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.480 which should not have the populations that they have and 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.840 wouldn't otherwise were it not for their ability to tap 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.160 into the water from the Colorado. 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.000 That's right. And by the way, I remembered halfway through 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:36.720 your opening salvo that this was a listener suggestion. So 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:38.240 I looked at up real quick, and this is from 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:40.160 George Bouncin. 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:43.639 Oh nice, Thanks a lot, George. This is a good idea. 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:45.920 Yeah, I agreed. So I bet George lives in one 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.400 of those states. But like you said, the Colorado River 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:53.520 very important. It provides I think Julia helped us with this, 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:59.240 and it supports roughly ten percent of Americans and one 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:03.080 point for trillion dollars economically. So it is a very 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:07.480 very important river system that starts there in the Rocky 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:13.480 Mountains and then flows generally southwest, and there are all 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.960 sorts of tributaries and things that feed into it. As 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:18.880 we'll see, that has become a bone of contention here 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.120 and there, but a lot of it is there are 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.040 bones of contention because this river compact that they forged 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.600 in nineteen twenty two to say, hey, how are you 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.680 going to divide this water up? Everybody wants to use 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:35.000 this stuff. It's it's up now this year, right in 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.000 twenty twenty six. Yeah, and they're trying to figure out, 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.080 you know, what to do about the next twenty years, 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:45.040 and there's especially between California and Arizona. But a lot 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:48.919 of the states have bones of contention with one another 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:50.160 on how this water is used. 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.120 Yeah, because there's almost a self defeating pickle that they've 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.920 been in just from sharing this. By having access to 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.760 that water, they've been able to boom like cities like 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:07.400 Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson. The list 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:12.040 just goes on. They are able to have these huge 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:16.120 populations in golf courses, in industry, and agriculture in the 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:20.720 Imperial Valley in California because of the Colorado River. So 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:22.880 that's attracted more and more people, which means you need 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:25.200 more and more water. So those bones of contention have 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.840 grown over the years. And now that it's one hundred 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:32.320 plus years old, Yeah, there's an issue. There's a problem 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.360 with this that we're going to see because this river 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:38.120 is like I can't take any more. 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:40.800 Yeah. Well yeah, and we're going to get into that 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.560 stuff too, because there's not as much water as they 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.600 thought there would be and it seems like it's getting 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.200 it's not coming back to the boom days for reasons 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.760 that we're going to talk about. But one thing we 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.560 should talk about is why water is so important out there, 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.800 And obviously one of the reasons is because there's not 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:05.000 much of it. Highs out in the desert can reach 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.839 over one hundred and twenty five degrees with great regularity 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.920 annual rainfall. This is near the Hoover Dam, and you know, 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.000 we did a great episode I think on the Hoover Dam. 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.120 Between the Vata and Arizona. Annual rainfall there is about 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:21.320 four inches. So the Colorado River is the thing. It's 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.600 the most key thing that we have at our disposal 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:25.920 to keep things alive. 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:30.120 Yeah. It's mother, lifeblood, life giver, that's what they call 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:34.400 it there. Yeah, so let's talk about the Hoover Dam. 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:36.680 Not just the Hoover Dam that one gets all of 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.640 the credit. There's also the Imperial Dam too. Yeah, that 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.479 diverts water to the All American Canal, which is a 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:46.839 very smart I think name, because it's one of those 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.520 things where if you dispute the water going there, they 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:52.920 could be like, well, you don't like the All American Canal? 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:53.839 Do you hate America? 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:54.559 Yeah? Sure. 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.400 So there's the Boulder Dam, now, the Hoover Dam and 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:03.120 the Imperial Dam. In both of those helped bank water 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:07.080 for what we know as the lower basin states and 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.680 the upper basin states are the ones responsible for essentially 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:12.280 filling those water banks. 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.920 That's right. So back when this, you know, in nineteen 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:20.080 twenty two, when this thing was first enacted and ratified, well, 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.520 I guess it was ratified a little more slowly over time, 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:28.960 as we'll see, but California and Arizona were developing much 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:33.440 more so than places like you know, Colorado and Wyoming. 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:35.799 So as far as the upper and the lower basin, 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.280 the lower basin areas were really exploding at the time. 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.560 If you were closer to those headwaters, you didn't have 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.159 those dams. There weren't opportunities to sort of divert that 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.280 water to save up for the future maybe, So all 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:53.880 of that water was going downstream where they were collecting 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.039 it and using it, which is sort of where the 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:57.039 animosity began. 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:00.280 I think, yeah, and the upstream states and grew that 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:02.520 we're using that water. We're like, well, wait a minute, 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.240 we want water too, Like what's going to happen? We 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.520 need something. We need somebody to come in and figure 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.880 out like how we can get our water too. And 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.560 there was a supreme Court decision that really scared the 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:20.240 upper states, the upstream states, which was the doctrine of 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:24.640 prior appropriation, which was applied to water rights. And the 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.080 prior appropriation basically means if you were the first one 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.800 to start using something from that point on, you have seniority. 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.600 So if you ever come up against the conflict between 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.719 you and somebody else, if you're the senior one, you 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:42.239 automatically get preference. And California and Arizona have been using 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:46.599 this water through water projects before, say like Colorado or 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:51.039 Wyoming or Utah, and that meant that they were going 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.080 to get the short end of the stick no matter what, 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:57.080 just because California and Arizona had these booming populations. 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.520 Yeah, for sure. And you know, to be clear, that 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:04.160 Supreme decision was basically that that first in time, first 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.160 and right applied across the state lines. 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:07.680 So yeah, yeah, good point. 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:10.560 You're sharing this river, but they were using it, so like, 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.360 sorry that you can't now take that away from them essentially, 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:17.560 But like you said, Colorado and Wyoming and other states 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:19.000 in New Mexico were like, well, we want to grow 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.960 one day and do these big projects too. We're just 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.200 not there yet. It's nineteen twenty two, give us a break. 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.600 So they got together to negotiate this thing, the Colorado 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.960 River Compact in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in November of 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:35.040 nineteen twenty two. Nice nuts and bolts. Wise, it's kind 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:36.760 of cool. It's the first time more than three US 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:42.160 states divided water among themselves. And we're going to talk 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:43.680 a little bit more about the law of the River 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:45.680 because it's got a lot of like tendrils to it. 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.960 But that established what would evolve over time as what's 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:50.960 called the law of the River. 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:56.200 Yeah, for sure. So here comes Herbert Hoover into our story. 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.480 If you were waiting for Hoover to show up, by god, 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.880 here he is president. No, he was the Secretary of 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:05.640 Commerce under President Warren G. Harding, but he did such 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:08.560 a good job he eventually became president and they renamed 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.680 the Boulder Dam the Hoover damn thanks to Herbert, Yeah, right, 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:15.440 or because of Herbert. So he steps in and says, hey, guys, 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.040 we need to figure out what's going on here. We 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:21.360 need to figure out how to basically let these water 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.960 thirsty states do their projects, because these are great projects. 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:26.960 We can all agree, but at the same time, we 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.840 need to make sure that these upstream groups when they 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.160 want to do their own projects, if they aren't do, 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.240 they'll have the water that they need. But we want 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:40.480 development throughout the system. That's the key, right. And most 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.080 people don't know what Herbert Hoover sounds like, but that 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:46.280 was an exact impersonation of what he sounded like in 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:47.000 the way he talked. 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:51.040 Yeah. Yeah, but here's the deal. He was like, you know, 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.920 let's not divide it up by states. Let's not apportion 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.839 it state by state, because that just makes too much sense. 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.800 He said, Let's split it. Split up the Colorado River 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:04.880 into two equal parts, and a lot equal amounts to 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.760 each half. So you got the upper basin and your 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.040 lower basin allotments and we'll talk about numbers here in 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:16.280 a second, sure, but within those, then you distribute by state, 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:22.319 like you've got the upper portion splitting it between I 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.040 guess everything. But California and Arizona, right, aren't they the 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:26.200 only two in the lower basin? 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:27.959 No, Nevada, I think is as well. 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:29.079 Oh, Nevada, that's right. Okay. 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:30.320 Yeah. 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.880 So the one proposal that they initially came up with, 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.240 though kind of one of the key early things was 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.880 they promised the lower basin, all right, you're going to 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.640 get some extra water here because you've already got these projects. 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.560 You're kind of grandfathered in because you've got these projects 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.760 and developments underway, so you're going to get some extra water. 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:53.640 And nobody really liked it. The lower Basin didn't even 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:54.760 like this idea to begin with. 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.640 No, Julia helped us with this, and she turned up 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.960 a quote from one of the men who was involved 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.280 in this compact in nineteen twenty two. He was the 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.120 one from the representative from New Mexico. He said, I 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.720 will register my vote as a yes, but I do 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.160 it only because to my mind it is the least 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.160 objectionable of the attempts that have been made to frame 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.520 the idea expressed in it, and not because I approve it. 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:20.560 Yeah, he held his nose and voted yes. 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.880 Yeah, And he apparently was not the only one who 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:27.439 did that. So they met twenty seven times. Yeah, they 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:31.640 finally signed the Colorado River Compact. And another great Hoover 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.720 quote is that this was a problem of more extreme 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.240 complexity than will ever be appreciated by the outside world. 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.959 And just after researching this for a little bit, I 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:47.040 kind of understand where he's coming from, the amount of 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.680 stuff that you would have to take into consideration to 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:54.319 do this even remotely fairly. Yeah, your eye on development 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:59.480 is just I can't imagine keeping all that stuff together 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.760 and coming up with it, let alone coming up with 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.319 one that you could get seven different states to finally 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:05.880 sign on. 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:07.760 There's no way. I mean, they all signed on, but 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.000 like he said, no one really thought it was super fair. 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:10.640 Right. 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.560 So the compact, like I said, divided things up into 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:16.680 the upper and the lower basin. And that divide actually 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.400 has a place, like a physical place, which is Lee 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:20.920 Ferry l. 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:25.800 E E f E r r Y, not Lee Perry, not. 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.439 Lee scratch Perry. That is at the border where the 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.760 river passes from the upper watershed to the lower watershed, 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:35.760 And that is where there's really unique place, quite frankly, 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:39.400 where all the tributaries upstream come together in this one 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.960 beautiful single stream before splitting back up again to other 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.040 branches on the other side. So they looked at that 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.040 and said, hey, Lee Faery, looks like probably a pretty 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:52.720 good spot to divide this into Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:57.480 and Utah. And then like Joshua, one day say, Arizona, California, 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:58.960 and don't forget Nevada. 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:03.360 Chuck for sure. So yeah, it's also just for you 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:08.559 Grand Canyon fans. It's not the same Lee's Ferry. This 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:10.600 is lee Faery and it's nowhere near it. 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.040 I think if you're a Grand Canyon fan, you got 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:15.160 to know that by now. 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:17.600 You'd hope. So, but what if you're new to being 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:19.400 a fan of the Grand Canyon. You know you don't 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:21.959 want to and I don't want to set them up 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.520 to make fools of themselves around the campfire. 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:27.960 So they this is one of the problems. And we're 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.000 going to talk about this later too, but they did 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:32.440 a little bit of research on waterflow because they had 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:34.000 to figure out, like, all right, how much water is 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.040 that even And what they measured was sixteen point four 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:43.280 million acre feet, splitting that up into almost fifty percent 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.360 of each seven point five million acre feet per basin 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:50.439 in perpetuity, with the rest leftover for Mexico. And we're 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:52.000 going to talk about that, but just so you know, 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:56.600 a water a one acre foot of water is enough 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.640 water to submerge an acre of land to the depth 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:00.520 of one foot. 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:02.240 I came up with that one. 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:05.200 I knew I wasn't gonna have to make the Joe. 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.319 I knew that. You knew I was gonna make that joke. 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:12.520 You can't read that without thinking, what Josh, How Josh 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:13.320 waters is lawned. 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.079 That's how I would farm too. I would just submerge 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.120 the acres of land in the depth of a foot 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.040 and be like, Wow, I'm done with the irrigating for 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:20.440 the year. 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.960 That's right, here's your rice and crayberries. So an acre 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.160 of land at the depth of one foot or three 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.560 hundred and twenty eight hundred and fifty one gallons of water. 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.560 So they measured sixteen point four million acre feet of 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:35.840 that and split it in half, with the rest going 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:36.400 to Mexico. 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.680 Yeah. Mexico is like, hey, what about us, And they're like, 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.000 you get one point five million acre feet just from 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.760 us for friends. As friends, Mexico, we love you guys, 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.439 and they're like, oh, we love you back. So I 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.400 think they split Mexico's allotment between the upper and the 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:52.600 lower basin equally. 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:53.280 Yeah. 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:58.480 Right. There was also another group of stakeholders that kept 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.840 getting overlooked and there's still overlooked to some degree, and 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:05.160 that are the Native American tribes whose reservations draw water 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.640 from the Colorado River, and the only appearance they made 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.040 in the compact was nothing in this compact shall be 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.800 construed as affecting the obligations of the United States of 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:15.760 America two Indian tribes. 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:16.720 What does that mean? 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:18.839 It means that the Indian tribes are going to have 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.160 to fend for themselves in court if they want any 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:26.280 of this water. And apparently every time they did, the states, 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.120 the seven Basin states, at least some of them would 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.920 lobby behind the scenes, use their clout to try to 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:37.800 get the Native Americans to get them denied their access 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:40.440 to the water. Of course it is I think there 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.760 are thirty tribes that have a claim on it, and 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:47.960 right now I think twenty three are legally drawing water 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:51.800 from the Colorado to fulfill their needs. But that means 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:55.200 that seven have not had a chance to in over 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:56.080 one hundred years. 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:00.360 That's right. So as far as how this actually works, 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.920 over a ten year period, the upper basin has to 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:09.520 deliver at least seventy five million acre feet of water 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.360 to the lower basin, and they measure it there at 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:14.520 leaf aerry. That's like, that's why the dividing point is 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.800 say they're actually measure this water, and the upper basin 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.960 can store whatever they have left over after they've delivered 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.480 that to the lower basin and their portion to Mexico. 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:26.600 And then one other thing you kind of already mentioned 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:32.040 it those projects that were already underway were really close 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:37.480 to being developed. Yeah, they were allotted extra water until 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.920 I think Lake Mead reached five million acre feet the reservoir. 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.520 So yeah, after that it was like, nope, you get 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:48.400 your water from the same allotment as everybody else. 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.240 That's right. And once those projects are done, like for 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.080 all new projects, if you're in the lower basin, you 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.840 got to start using your reserve or your alitment rather. 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:01.520 Yeah, I think that fan of complex interstate treaty is 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:03.160 really happy right now. 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.600 I imagine, so you want to take a break, then yeah, 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:07.160 let's do it. 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:34.960 Okay, we're taking a break. So you can imagine that 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.200 there was a lot of problems once they came up 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.160 with this proposed plan to get everybody on board, and 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.760 in fact, Arizona didn't sign on until nineteen forty four, 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.680 like a couple decades later. Yeah, and the other six 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:50.800 were like, okay, we need to just rewrite this a 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:54.400 little bit so this can proceed forward without Arizona. And 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:58.880 I guess Arizona and California have always had this stand off, 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:04.760 this angry kind of tiff a row something like that. 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:09.040 Over water rights in California typically wins that one. 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.800 Yeah, what I couldn't find out is what did they 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:12.680 do in the meantime? 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.240 I guess they just took as much water as they wanted. 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:20.160 Okay, it's not like they said, that's my guess. Yeah, 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.480 all right, That's the one thing I couldn't quite find. 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.199 Because I mean, they wouldn't go like twenty years without 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:27.960 what They'd be like, Wow, we're just gonna go without water? 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.440 I would think not. I would guess they'd just take 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.239 whatever they wanted. What I don't understand then is if 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.680 they did that, why did they finally sign on if 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:37.520 they had unlimited water? You know? 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.040 Yeah, that listener who is really into the river projects 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:42.040 they're going to write and I'm. 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:43.480 Sure, yeah, we need to hear from them. 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:46.280 All right, So now I promise talk the law of 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:51.040 the river. That is the more complex set of laws 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:55.520 and compacts in court decisions and contracts and all these 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:57.640 guidelines and stuff that have been issued over the years. 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.600 It's all together called the Law of the River, but 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:01.919 the color Rudder River Compact is sort of the spine 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.280 of this. Yeah, but we do have to mention these 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:07.680 because a lot of them have popped up over the years. 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.160 There was the Boulder Canyon Project Act, which we previously 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:16.320 mentioned in nineteen twenty eight that officially ratified the River Compact. 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.960 But that's where the Hoover Dam came from. Boulder Dam 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.200 at the time, and that all American Canal And that's 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:26.160 when they officially apportioned everything out within that seven point 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:30.920 five million for each Arizona got for the lower basin, 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.840 that is, Arizona got two point eight million, California got 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:38.919 four point four, Nevada got point three million. Yeah, and 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.080 the upper basin went with a percentage, right. 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.199 Yes, I think Colorado got the most at fifty one percent, 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:49.160 in Utah twenty three, New Mexico eleven, and Wyoming fourteen. 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.400 Right right, So that was that's how they finally got 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.240 it a portioned that upper basin. That wasn't until nineteen 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.600 forty eight when they finally divided it all up. 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:00.000 Yeah. 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.879 And one reason that that could wait is because even 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:07.320 still today, those upper basin states use way less than 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:11.639 their allotment of water. I think California uses more water 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.000 than all of the upper basin states combined, even though 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.560 the allotment is different. Yeah, and I think that the 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.199 upper basin states have basically had to bow to the 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.600 idea of progress and just let the lower basin states 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:27.560 use more than their allotment of water. 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:31.600 Yeah, that's right. There was another and like you said, 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.320 that was nineteen forty eight for the Upper Compact. Nineteen 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:38.920 sixty three comes along. You have Arizona v. California, where 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.760 the decision was handed out. They were basically like, what 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.480 do we do with the surplus water in the lower basin, 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.160 And this decision said California Arizona split it at fifty 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:55.199 to fifty. But also these five Native American reservations and 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.280 some wildlife refuges and recreational areas, like they get some 0:19:58.359 --> 0:19:58.800 water too. 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:02.920 Yeah. There's also you kind of mentioned how tributaries can 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:07.120 become its own bone of contention or point of contention. 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.560 I guess California was using tributary water before it got 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.359 to the Colorado River, because, like you said, all those 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:20.000 tributaries branched together and come together at Lee Ferry and 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.840 then brant out again. I guess California is just tapping 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.320 into one like do do do don't mind us. Yeah, 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:31.000 we're just taking upper basin water from one of the tributaries. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.320 And the court was like, that's fine, that doesn't count 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:35.040 as Colorado River apportionment. 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.440 Yeah, that was nineteen sixty four, right with that decree. 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:44.160 Yeah, in Arizona one California. 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.320 There was the Colorado River Basin Project Act in nineteen 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.960 sixty eight that basically just green lit a bunch of 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:53.119 projects on both sides, you know, both basins, upper and lower. 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:55.919 But the key part of this one, I think was 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.960 it said, all right, if there are any overcap reserve 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.960 during water shortages, California gets the rights to those. 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.040 Yeah, because they had the earliest projects, so they had 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.840 that first in first right thing. Also, that act created 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:14.400 the Central Arizona Project, which brought water to Phoenix and Tucson, 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:19.320 and the population of Arizona doubled since nineteen ninety three 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:23.920 when the Central Arizona Project was finally complained. Doubled because 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.119 of the water that was diverted to Arizona from the 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:28.720 Colorado River. 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:31.440 Yeah. I mean it's gorgeous out there. I lived out there. 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.359 People always loved Arizona, but they were thirsty, so this 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:35.080 really helped out. 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.120 Yeah, for sure, it gets kind of dry out there. 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:42.080 Yeah. I lived in Yuma, and you know that's where well, 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.320 we'll see Yuma plays a part, huge part. Surprise pop 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:47.280 up appearance by Yuma coming up everybody. 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:53.240 Yep, let's see. There's also review mandated reviews every five years. 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:55.720 The Department of the Interior was directed to take over 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:58.879 managing this thing. And then in nineteen seventy three, thanks 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:03.360