628

RIO GRANDE COMPACT

To the extent that accrued credits are impounded in reservoirs between San Marcial and Courchesne, and to the extent that accrued debits are impounded in reservoirs above San Marcial, such credits and debits shall be reduced annually to compensate for evaporation losses in the proportion that such credits or debits bore to the total amount of water in such reservoirs during the year.

ARTICLE VII

Neither Colorado nor New Mexico shall increase the amount of water in storage in reservoirs constructed after 1929 whenever there is less than 400,000 acre-feet of usable water in project storage; provided, that if the actual releases of usable water from the beginning of the calendar year following the effective date of this Compact, or from the beginning of the calendar year following actual spill, have aggregated more than an average of 790,000 acre-feet per annum, the time at which such minimum stage is reached shall be adjusted to compensate for the difference between the total actual release and releases at such average rate; provided, further, that Colorado or New Mexico, or both, may relinquish accrued credits at any time, and Texas may accept such relinquished water, and in such event the state, or states, so relinquishing shall be entitled to store water in the amount of the water so relinquished.

ARTICLE VIII

During the month of January of any year the Commissioner for Texas may demand of Colorado and New Mexico, and the Commissioner for New Mexico may demand of Colorado, the release of water from storage reservoirs constructed after 1929 to the amount of the accrued debits of Colorado and New Mexico, respectively, and such releases shall be made by each at the greatest rate practicable under the conditions then prevailing, and in production to the total debit of each, and in amounts, limited by their accrued debits, sufficient to bring the quantity of usable water in project storage to 600,000 acre-feet by March first and to maintain this quantity in storage until April thirtieth, to the end that a normal release of 790,000 acre-feet may be made from project storage in that year.

ARTICLE IX

Colorado agrees with New Mexico that in event the United States or the State of New Mexico decides to construct the necessary works for diverting the waters of the San Juan River, or any of its tributaries, into the Rio Grande, Colorado hereby consents to the construction of said works and the diversion of waters from the San Juan River, or the tributaries thereof, into the Rio Grande in New Mexico, provided the present and prospective uses of water in Colorado by other diversions from the San Juan River, or its tributaries, are protected.

ARTICLE X

In the event water from another drainage basin shall be imported into the Rio Grande Basin by the United States or Colorado or New Mexico, or any of

RIO GRANDE COMPACT

629

them jointly, the State having the right to the use of such water shall be given proper credit therefor in the application of the schedules.

ARTICLE XI

New Mexico and Texas agree that upon the effective date of this Compact all controversies between said States relative to the quantity or quality of the water of the Rio Grande are composed and settled; however, nothing herein shall be interpreted to prevent recourse by a signatory state to the Supreme Court of the United States for redress should the character or quality of the water, at the point of delivery, be changed hereafter by one signatory state to the injury of another. Nothing herein shall be construed as an admission by any signatory state that the use of water for irrigation causes increase of salinity for which the user is responsible in law.

ARTICLE XII

To administer the provisions of this Compact there shall be constituted a Commission composed of one representative from each state, to be known as the Rio Grande Compact Commission. The State Engineer of Colorado shall be ex officio the Rio Grande Compact Commissioner for Colorado. The State Engineer of New Mexico shall be ex officio the Rio Grande Compact Commissioner for New Mexico. The Rio Grande Compact Commissioner for Texas shall be appointed by the Governor of Texas. The President of the United States shall be requested to designate a representative of the United States to sit with such Commission, and such representative of the United States, if so designated by the President shall act as Chairman of the Commission without vote.

The salaries and personal expenses of the Rio Grande Compact Commissioners for the three States shall be paid by their respective States, and all other expenses incident to the administration of this Compact, not borne by the United States, shall be borne equally by the three States.

In addition to the powers and duties hereinbefore specifically conferred upon such Commission, and the members thereof, the jurisdiction of such Commission shall extend only to the collection, correlation, and presentation of factual data and the maintenance of records having a bearing upon the administration of this Compact, and, by unanimous action, to the making of recommendations to the respective States upon matters connected with the administration of this Compact. In connection therewith, the Commission may employ such engineering and clerical aid as may be reasonably necessary within the limits of funds provided for that purpose by the respective States. Annual reports compiled for each calendar year shall be made by the Commission and transmitted to the Governors of the signatory States on or before March first following the year covered by the report. The Commission may, by unanimous action, adopt rules and regulations consistent with the provisions of this Compact to govern their proceedings.

The findings of the Commission shall not be conclusive in any court or tribunal which may be called upon to interpret or enforce this Compact.

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ARTICLE XIII

At the expiration of every five-year period after the effective date of this Compact, the Commission may, by unanimous consent, review any provisions hereof which are not substantive in character and which do not affect the bass principles upon which the Compact is founded, and shall meet for the consideration of such questions on the request of any member of the Commission; provided, however, that the provisions hereof shall remain in full force and effect until changed and amended within the intent of the Compact by unanimous action of the Commissioners and until any changes in this Compact are ratified by the legislatures of the respective states and consented to by the Congress, in the same manner as this Compact is required to be ratified to become effective.

ARTICLE XIV

The schedules herein contained and the quantities of water herein allocated shall never be increased nor diminished by reason of any increases or diminution in the delivery or loss of water to Mexico.

ARTICLE XV

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 provisions herein contained establishes any general principle or precedent applicable to other interstate streams.

ARTICLE XVI

Nothing in this Compact shall be construed as affecting the obligations of the United States of America to Mexico under existing treaties or to the Indian tribes, or as impairing the rights of the Indian tribes.

ARTICLE XVII

This Compact shall become effective when ratified by the legislatures of each of the signatory States and consented to by the Congress of the United States. Notice of ratification 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 the consent of 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.

RIO GRANDE COMPACT

Done at the City of Santa Fe, in the State of New Mexico, on the 18th day of March, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Thirty-eight.

632

RELIEF TO WATER USERS

An act to authorize further relief to water users on United States reclamation projects and on Indian reclamation projects. (Act of May 31, 1939, ch. 156, 53 Stat. 792) [Sec. 1. Secretary of Interior authorized to determine if project unable to pay 1938 charges-Extension of time for payment-Charges so extended to be paid as Secretary determines.]-The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to determine as to each United States and Indian reclamation project whether any of the water users' organizations or water users, as the case may be, owing construction charges to the United States on each such project are unable, due to partial crop failure attributable to a water shortage or due to other causes beyond the control of the water users, to pay without great hardship or undue burden the full amount of the construction charges due and payable for the calendar year 1938 and of any unpaid construction charges required to be paid as a condition precedent to delivery of water in 1939. Said Secretary shall base his determinations on such data furnished by water users' organizations and water users and on such investigations and reports by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Office of Indian Affairs as he deems necessary. As to any such water users' organization or water user who according to the said Secretary's determination is unable to pay in full the construction charges due and payable for the calendar year 1938 and any unpaid construction charges required to be paid as a condition precedent to delivery of water in 1939, said Secretary is hereby authorized to grant an extension of time for the payment of such proportion of said charges as in his judgment in each case is just and equitable: Provided, That said Secretary may make any extension granted pursuant to the authority of this Act subject to such conditions as in his judgment are desirable in the interest of the United States. The charges so extended shall be paid at such time or times as the said Secretary may determine. (53 Stat. 792)

Sec. 2. [Definitions.]—As used in this Act the term "United States reclamation project" shall mean any irrigation project constructed by the United States, or in connection with which there has been executed a repayment contract with the United States, pursuant to the Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), or any Act amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto; the term “Indian reclamation project" shall mean any irrigation project constructed by the United States under the direction of the Office of Indian Affairs, or in connection with which there has been executed a repayment contract with the United States, pursuant to Acts of Congress relating to Indian reclamation projects; and the term "construction charges" shall mean the installments on the principal obligations due each year to the United States under water-right applications, repayment contracts, orders of the Secretary of the Interior, or other forms of obligations entered into pursuant to said Federal reclamation laws, or Acts of Congress relating to Indian reclamation projects. (53 Stat. 793)