Provisions
The compact divides the river basin into two areas, the Upper Division (comprising Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) and the Lower Division (Nevada, Arizona and California). The compact requires the Upper Basin states not to deplete the flow of the river below 75,000,000 acre feet (93 km3) during any period of ten consecutive years. Based on historical rainfall patterns, the amount specified in the compact was assumed to allow a roughly equal division of water between the two regions. The states within each basin were required to divide their 7,500,000-acre (30,000 km2) foot per year (289 m³/s) share allotment among themselves. The compact enabled the widespread irrigation of the Southwest, as well as the subsequent development of state and federal water works projects under the United States Bureau of Reclamation. Such projects included the Hoover Dam and Lake Powell.
The current specific annual allotments in the Lower Basin were established in 1928 as part of the Boulder Canyon Project, while the current specific annual allotments in the Upper Basin were established by the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact of 1948. They are:
| Upper Basin, 7.5 million acre·ft/year (293 m³/s) total | |||
| Colorado | 51.75%* | 3.86 million acre·ft/year (150.7 m³/s) | |
| Utah | 23.00%* | 1.71 million acre·ft/year (67.0 m³/s) | |
| Wyoming | 14.00%* | 1.04 million acre·ft/year (40.8 m³/s) | |
| New Mexico | 11.25%* | 0.84 million acre·ft/year (32.8 m³/s) | |
| Arizona | 0.70% | 0.05 million acre·ft/year (2.0 m³/s) | |
| *Percentages with a star are a percentage of the total after Arizona's 0.05 million are deducted. Arizona's percentage is of the total. |
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| Lower Basin, 7.5 million acre·ft/year (293 m³/s) total | |||
| California | 58.70% | 4.40 million acre·ft/year (172 m³/s) | |
| Arizona | 37.30% | 2.80 million acre·ft/year (109 m³/s) | |
| Nevada | 4.00% | 0.30 million acre·ft/year (12 m³/s) | |
In addition to this, 1,500,000-acre-foot (1.9×109 m3)/year of Colorado River water is allocated to Mexico, pursuant to the treaty relating to the use of waters of the Colorado and Tijuana rivers and of the Rio Grande, signed February 3, 1944, and its supplementary protocol signed November 14, 1944. Also, the lower basin can get an additional 1,100,000-acre-foot (1.4×109 m3)/year.
Read more about this topic: Colorado River Compact
Famous quotes containing the word provisions:
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—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Drinking tents were full, glasses began to clink in carriages, hampers to be unpacked, tempting provisions to be set forth, knives and forks to rattle, champagne corks to fly, eyes to brighten that were not dull before, and pickpockets to count their gains during the last heat. The attention so recently strained on one object of interest, was now divided among a hundred; and, look where you would, there was a motley assemblage of feasting, talking, begging, gambling and mummery.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)