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Chapter 7: Colorado River
Water
The other states would ratify the compact
only if
California agreed to abandon its clai
m
to an extra-large share of the water from the
Colorado River. California reasoned that it had
already been using the river’s water in the
I
mperial Valley, while the other states had bare-
ly tapped it. The other states argued that they
had greater riparian rights than California,
which contributed virtually nothing to the river's
flow. In 1929, California compromised.
It signed the California Li
mitation Act, accept-
ing 4.4 million acre-feet of the water, with not
more than half of any surplus water after the
other states received their allotments. Arizona
still refused to ratify, so the deal became
known as the Six State Compact. (Arizona
eventually signed the compact in 1944.)
After California accepted the California
Li
mitation Act, water agencies from the state
agreed on a plan in 1931 to divide water
among themselves in a negotiation called The
Seven Party Agreement. The irrigation districts
to the east received first priority to the water of
the Colorado River because they had already
been using it. According to one tenet of
Western water law, it was “first come, first
served” for established users, as long as they
were using the water “beneficially.”
The newly formed Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California (MWD), which represented
the interests of Los Angeles and the surrounding
region, was fourth and fifth on the priority
list for Colorado River water. It was created in
1928 by an act of the State Legislature to whole-
sale i
mported water to its member agencies.
Imperial Valley irrigation canal
THE SEVEN PARTY AGREEMENT: Priorities and Allotments within California
The Boulder Canyon Project Act li
mited California’s use of the water from the Colorado
River to 4.4 million acre-feet per year plus one-half of the annual surplus left after the other
parties had received their full allotments. However, this surplus can only be declared by
the Secretary of the Interior. Furthermore, it did not provide for the allocation of this water
within California. That agreement came about three years later, in 1931, when California’s
cities and agricultural interests entered into the Seven Party Agreement.
The agreement created a system of “priorities.” The first three priorities went to agricultural
interests — the Palo Verde Irrigation District, the Yuma Project, and the I
mperial Irrigation
District/Coachella Valley Water District. Their combined total use was li
mited to 3.85
million acre-feet per year. The fourth priority went to the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California for the use of 550,000 acre-feet per year.
These first four priorities were by far the most i
mportant because the Boulder Canyon
Project Act (as intended by Congress and interpreted by the Supreme Court) guaranteed
California only 4.4 million acre-feet per year. The remaining priority rights would come
from surplus water.
The city of San Diego held a fifth priority right, along with Metropolitan and the city of Los
Angeles. Metropolitan and Los Angeles received a total of 550,000 acre-feet, and San
Diego was entitled to 112,000. In 1946, when the San Diego County Water Authority
annexed into Metropolitan, the city of San Diego assigned its water rights to Metropolitan
as a condition of annexation. Today.
Metropolitan holds rights to 1.2 million acre-feet of
Colorado River water, 550,000 as a fourth priority allotment, and 662,000 acre-feet as a
fifth priority allotment (only if a surplus is declared).