898
PUBLIC LAW 90-537-SEPT. 30, 1968
[82 STAT.
" A N I M A S - L A PLATA PROJECT COMPACT
"The State of Colorado and the State of New Mexico, in order to implement the operation of the Animas-La Phita Federal Reclamation Project, Colorado-New Mexico, a proposed participating project under the Colorado River Storage Project Act (70 Stat. 105; 48 U.S.C. 620) and being moved by considerations of interstate comity, have resolved to conclude a compact for these purposes and have agreed upon the following articles: "ARTICLE
I
"A. The right to store and divert water in Colorado and New Mexico from the L a Plata and Animas River systems, including return flow to the La Plata River from Animas River diversions, for uses in New Mexico under the Animas-La Plata Federal Reclamation Project shall be valid and of equal priority with those rights granted by decree of the Colorado state courts for the uses of water in Colorado for that project, providing such uses in New" Mexico are within the allocation of water made to that state by articles III and X IV of the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact (63 Stat. 31). " B. The restrictions of the last sentence of Section (a) of Article IX of the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact shall not be construed to vitiate paragraph A of this article. "ARTICLE
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II
"This Compact shall become binding and obligatory when it shall have been ratified by the legislatures of each of the signatory States." (d) The Secretary shall, for the Animas-La Plata, Dolores, Dallas Creek, San Miguel, West Divide, and Seedskadee participating projects of the Colorado River storage project, establish the nonexcess irrigable acreage for which any single ownership may receive project water at one hundred and sixty acres of class 1 land or the equivalent thereof, as determined by the Secretary, in other land classes. (e) In the diversion and storage of water for any project or any parts thereof constructed under the authority of this Act or the Colorado River Storage Project Act within and for the benefit of the State of Colorado only, the Secretary is directed to comply with the constitution and statutes of the State of Colorado relating to priority of appropriation; with State and Federal court decrees entered pursuant thereto; and with operating principles, if any, adopted by the Secretary and approved by the State of Colorado. (f) The words "any western slope appropriations'" contained in paragraph (i) of that section of Senate Document Numbered 80, Seventy-fifth Congress, first session, entitled "Manner of Operation of Project Facilities and Auxiliary Features", shall mean and refer to the appropriation heretofore made for the storage of water in Green Mountain Reservoir, a unit of the Colorado-Big Thompson Federal reclamation project, Colorado; and the Secretary is directed to act in accordance with such meaning and reference. It is the sense of Congress that this directive defines and observes the purpose of said paragraph (i), and does not in any way affect or alter any rights or obligations arising under said Senate Document Numbered 80 or under the laws of the State of Colorado. SEC. 502. The Upper Colorado River Basin Fund established under section 5 of the Colorado River Storage Project Act (70 Stat. 107; 43 U.S.C. 620d) shall be reimbursed from the Colorado River Development F u n d established by section 2 of the Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act (54 Stat. 774; 43 U.S.Cl 51«a) for the money expended heretofore or hereafter from the L^pper Colorado River Basin
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