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TEMPORARY RIO GRANDE COMPACT

"ARTICLE VII

"(a) On or before the completion of the Closed Basin Drain and the State Line Reservoir, and in any event not later than June 1, 1935, a commission of three members shall be constituted, to which the governor of each of the signatory States shall appoint a commissioner, for the purpose of concluding a compact among the signatory States and providing for the equitable apportionment of the use of the waters of the Rio Grande among said States. The governors of said States shall request the President of the United States to name a representative to sit with said commission.

"(b) The commission so named shall equitably apportion the waters of the Rio Grande as of conditions obtaining on the river and within the Rio Grande Basin at the time of the signing of this compact, and no advantage or right shall accrue or be asserted by reason of construction of works, reclamation of land, or other change in conditions or in use of water within the Rio Grande Basin or the Closed Basin during the time intervening between the signing of this compact and the concluding of such subsequent compact to the end that the rights and equities of each State may be preserved unimpaired: Provided, however, That Colorado shall not be denied the right to divert, store, and/or use water in additional amounts equivalent to the flow into the river from the drain from the Closed Basin.

"(c) Any compact concluded by said commission shall be of no force or effect until ratified by the legislature of each of the signatory States and approved by the Congress of the United States.

"ARTICLE VIII

"(a) Subject to the provisions of this article Colorado consents to the construction and use of a reservoir by the United States and/or New Mexico, and/or Texas, as the case may be, by the erection of a dam across the channel of the Rio Grande at a suitable point in the canyon below the lower State bridge, and grants to the United States and/or to said States, or either thereof, the right to acquire by purchase, prescription, or to exercise of eminent domain such rights of way, easements, and/or lands as may be necessary or convenient for the construction, maintenance, and operation of said reservoir and the storage and release of waters.

"(b) Said reservoir shall be so constructed and operated that the storage and release of waters therefrom and the flowage of water over the spillway shall not impede or interfere with the operation, maintenance, and uninterrupted use of drainage works in the San Luis Valley in Colorado or with the flow and discharge of waters therefrom.

"(c) The construction and/or operation of said reservoir and the storage and regulation of flow of waters thereby for beneficial uses or otherwise shall not become the basis or hereafter give rise to any claim of appropriation of waters or of any prior, preferred, or superior right to the use of any such waters. The purof said reservoir shall be to store and regulate the flow of the river. "(d) The United States, or the signatory States, as the case may be, shall

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471

control the storage and release of water from said reservoir and the management and operation thereof, subject to a compact between the signatory States.

"(e) Colorado reserves jurisdiction and control over said reservoir for game, fish, and all other purposes not herein relinquished.

"(f) Colorado waives rights of taxation of said reservoir and appurtenant structures and all lands by it occupied.

"ARTICLE IX

"Nothing in this compact shall be construed as affecting the obligations of the United States of America to the United States of Mexico, or to the Indian tribes, or as impairing the rights of the Indian tribes.

"ARTICLE X

"It is declared by the States signatory hereto to be the policy of all parties hereto to avoid waste of waters, and to that end the officials charged with the performance of duties hereunder shall use their utmost efforts to prevent wastage of waters.

"ARTICLE XI

"Subject to the provisions of this compact water of the Rio Grande or any of its tributaries may be impounded and used for the generation of power, but such impounding and use shall always be subservient to the use and consumption of such waters for domestic, municipal, and agricultural purposes. Water shall not be stored, detained, nor discharged so as to prevent or impair use for such dominant purposes.

"ARTICLE XII

"New Mexico agrees with Texas, with the understanding that prior vested rights above and below Elephant Butte Reservoir shall never be impaired hereby, that she will not cause or suffer the water supply of the Elephant Butte Reservoir to be impaired by new or increased diversion or storage within the limits of New Mexico unless and until such depletion is offset by increase of drainage

return.

"ARTICLE XIII

"The physical and other conditions characteristic of the Rio Grande and peculiar to the territory drained and served thereby, and to the development thereof, have actuated this compact, and none of the signatory States admits that any provision herein contained establishes any general principle of precedent applicable to other interstate streams.

"ARTICLE XIV

"This compact may be terminated or extended at any time by the unanimous legislative action of all of the signatory States, and in that event all rights established under it shall remain and continue unimpaired.

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TEMPORARY RIO GRANDE COMPACT

"ARTICLE XV

"Nothing herein contained shall prevent the adjustment or settlement of any claim or controversy between these States by direct legislative action of the interested States nor shall anything herein contained be construed to limit the right of any State to invoke the jurisdiction of any court of competent jurisdiction for the protection of any right secured to such State by the provisions of this compact, or to enforce any provision thereof.

"ARTICLE XVI

"Nothing in this compact shall be considered or construed as recognizing, establishing, or fixing any status of the river or the accuracy of any data or records or the rights or equities of any of the signatories or as a recognition, acceptance, or acknowledgement of any plan or principle or of any claim or assertion made or advanced by either of the signatories or hereafter construed as in any manner establishing any principle or precedent as regards future equitable apportionment of the waters of the Rio Grande. The signatories agree that the plan herein adopted for administration of the waters of the Rio Grande is merely a temporary expedient to be applied during the period of time in this compact specified, is a compromise temporary in nature and shall have no other force or interpretation, and that the plan adopted as a basis therefore is not to be construed as in any manner establishing, acknowledging, or defining any status, condition, or principle at this or any other time.

"ARTICLE XVII

"The signatories consent and agree to the extension of time for construction of reservoirs on sites covered by approved applications during the time of this compact and for a reasonable time thereafter.

"ARTICLE XVIII

"This compact shall become operative when approved by the legislature of each of the signatory States and by the Congress of the United States. Notice of approval shall be given by the governor of each State to the governors of the other States and to the President of the United States, and the President of the United States is requested to give notice to the governors of each of the signatory States of its approval by the Congress of the United States.

"In witness whereof, the commissioners have signed this compact in quadruplicate original, one of which shall be deposited in the archives of the Department of State of the United States of America and shall be deemed the authoritative original, and of which a duly certified copy shall be forwarded to the governor of each of the signatory States.

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TEMPORARY RIO GRANDE COMPACT

"Done at the city of Santa Fe, in the State of New Mexico, on the 12th day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

474

PAYMENTS FOR PAIUTE INDIAN LANDS, NEWLANDS PROJECT

An Act to provide for the payment of benefits received by the Paiute Indian Reservation lands within the Newlands irrigation project, Nevada, and for other purposes. (Act of June 27, 1930, ch. 637, 46 Stat. 820)

[Authorization for appropriation to pay Truckee-Carson irrigation district for benefits received by Indian lands.]-There is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $6,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for paying the TruckeeCarson irrigation district, Fallon, Nevada, in sixty semiannual installments, as equally as may be, the proportionate share of the benefits received by four thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven and three-tenths irrigable acres of Paiute Indian lands within the Newlands irrigation project, for necessary repairs to the Truckee Canal to restore said canal to its original capacity, said payments to be made at the same time and at the same rate per irrigable acre as that paid to the Reclamation Bureau by said district for other irrigable lands located therein. (46 Stat. 820)

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Not Codified. This Act is not codified in the U.S. Code.

Legislative History. S. 135, Public Law

451 in the 71st Congress. S. Rept. No. 532. H.R. Rept. No. 1691.