CRSP - A Brief History
The need for the Colorado River Storage Project was actually envisioned at the time the Colorado River Compact (Compact) was established in 1922, laying the groundwork for the future project. The need for this foundational document of the Law of the River grew out of early contention over the Colorado River. Burgeoning growth in California caused concern for the other Colorado River Basin states for fear that California would establish priority rights to Colorado River water because Western water law was based on the doctrine of “prior appropriation” (first in time, first in right) giving highest priority to first users of water. In order to resolve this pivotal issue, discussions for an interstate compact between the Colorado River Basin states began in January 1922 to determine how to equitably divide and apportion the use of the Colorado River’s water among the seven Colorado River Basin states.
The Colorado River Compact divided the river system into two sections; the Upper Basin (comprised of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and a portion of Arizona) and the Lower Basin (comprised of California, Nevada, and Arizona) with the dividing point at Lee Ferry, Arizona, and established that each basin would receive 7.5 million acre-feet of water annually. It also gave priority to delivery of the Lower Basin’s entitlement requiring the Upper Basin to ensure delivery of 75 million acre-feet to the Lower Basin in any rolling 10-year period regardless of hydrology.
With the Upper and Lower basin distinctions established and each basin’s allocation of the Colorado River identified, the Compact set the stage for the development that would be authorized by additional Law of the River legislation, including the Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP) Act. Authorized by Congress on April 11, 1956, the CRSP Act became an important factor in the development and management of water in the Upper Basin. The CRSP was intended to provide for storage in the Upper Basin to allow the Upper Basin to develop its apportionments of the Colorado River while assuring the required water delivery to the Lower Basin. This would be accomplished through construction of four primary units: the Wayne N. Aspinall Unit in Colorado (Blue Mesa, Crystal, and Morrow Point Dams), Flaming Gorge Unit in Utah, Navajo Unit in New Mexico, and Glen Canyon Unit in Arizona; and a number of participating projects.