The History of the Rio Grande Compact of 1938

The Rio Grande Compact: Douglas R. Littlefield received his bache- Its the Law! lors degree from Brown University, a masters degree from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1987. His doc- toral dissertation was entitled, Interstate The History of the Water Conflicts, Compromises, and Com- Rio Grande pacts: The Rio Grande, 1880-1938. Doug Compact heads Littlefield Historical Research in of 1938 Oakland, California. He is a research histo- rian and consultant for many projects throughout the nation. Currently he also is providing consulting services to the U.S. Department of Justice, Salt River Project in Arizona, Nebraska Department of Water Resources, and the City of Las Cruces. From 1984-1986, Doug consulted for the Legal Counsel, New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, on the history of Rio Grande water rights and interstate apportionment disputes between New Mexico and Texas for use in El Paso v. Reynolds. account for its extraordinary irrelevancy, Boyd charged, by concluding that it was written by a The History of the congenital idiot, borrowed for such purpose from the nearest asylum for the insane. Rio Grande Compact Boyds remarks may have been intemperate, but nevertheless, they amply illustrate how heated of 1938 the struggle for the rivers water supplies had become even as early as the turn of the century. And Boyds outrage stemmed only from battles Good morning. I thought Id start this off on over water on the limited reach of the Rio Grande an upbeat note with the following historical extending just from southern New Mexicos commentary: Mesilla Valley to areas further downstream near Mentally and morally depraved. A cynical El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. Similar contempt for the canons of public and official passionsalthough perhaps less colorfulthree decency. These were the angry words of Nathan decades later underlay the broader conflicts E. Boyd, president of the Rio Grande Dam and among Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas that Irrigation Company, shortly after the turn of the led up to the approval of the 1938 Rio Grande century when he discovered that Arthur Powell Compact. Davis, assistant chief engineer of the newly Yet even that accord has not ended the formed U.S. Reclamation Service, had issued a controversies over the rivers water supplies, and blunt report heavily critical of the companys one of the reasons why, I believe, is a lack of plans to build a dam at Elephant Butte on the Rio knowledge about the Compacts history. It is this Grande and to provide irrigation water to lands lack of understanding that has precipitated one of along that river, especially to New Mexicos the enduring mysteries about the Compact. That fertile Mesilla Valley. One is almost driven to puzzle is the question of why the 1938 Rio WRRI Conference Proceedings 1999 1 The Rio Grande Compact: Grande Compacts negotiators provided for been reached at the 1904 National Irrigation Its the Law! deliveries of the rivers waters by Colorado at the Congressa meeting held annually for engineers, Colorado-New Mexico state line yet no similar government officials, and parties prominent in the delivery point was established at the New Mexico- field of reclamation. This compromise, the press Texas border. Instead, New Mexicos delivery reported, would end a long and bitter dispute over obligation is made, according to the Rio Grande the apportionment of the waters of the Rio The History Compact, at San Marcial, New Mexico, just Grande. The decade-long controversy at that point of the above Elephant Butte Reservoir. This delivery in time pitted irrigators in southern New Mexicos Rio Grande point is over a hundred miles upstream from Mesilla Valley against those slightly downstream Compact Texas. Why, then, was this delivery point speci- around El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. of 1938 fied instead of some place nearer the New Typifying the enthusiastic accounts of the Mexico-Texas border? resolution of the strife, the Houston Post an- The San Marcial delivery location has caused nounced that after fighting for the past ten years, years of confusion (and, in fact, still perplexes El Paso, New Mexico and Mexico came together some people). Moreover, at times the San Marcial today, buried the hatchet and will pull as one man delivery location has placed Texas authorities in for a great storage dam across the Rio Grande for the awkward position of aligning themselves with the reclamation of arid lands in this section. The southern New Mexico water users against New Post added the further optimistic judgment that Mexico water users above Elephant Butte in order the success of this project meant more for El to protect Texass supplies of Rio Grande waters. Paso than can be told. The reality of the matter, however, is that Closer to the struggle in western Texas and there is an allocation of Rio Grande waters at the southern New Mexico, the newspaper reports New Mexico-Texas border. This apportionment were even more effusive about the successful end was legislated by Congress in 1905 when federal to the Rio Grandes conflicts. One of Las Cruces, lawmakers authorized the construction of the Rio New Mexicos newspapers, the Rio Grande Grande Project in southern New Mexico and Republican, for example, trumpeted that the western Texas by the U.S. Reclamation Service National Irrigation Congresss effects would be (today, the Bureau of Reclamation). The alloca- long-lasting, especially in New Mexico. All tion mandated by Congress was that the Reclama- seemed to be working for the reclamation of the tion Service would divide the waters within the arid lands, the Republican gushed, that our Rio Grande Project based on surveys of irrigable citizens might have palacial [sic] homes sur- lands in New Mexico and Texas. Following those rounded with lifes comforts, instead of poverty. studies, the Reclamation Service established that Downstream in Texas, the El Paso Heralds the equitable apportionment of Rio Grande waters large headline boldly proclaimed Unanimity, within the Rio Grande Project would be supplies and the paper was filled with laudatory narratives sufficient for 88,000 acres in southern New of how a consensus, absolute, firm as a rock, Mexico and 67,000 acres in western Texas. had been reached in sentiment and purpose, How that apportionment was intended to be among representatives from the Rio Grande valley incorporated into the broader allocation under the of New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico, with refer- 1938 Rio Grande Compact is the focus of the ence to plans for reclaiming the valley. remainder of my remarks today. To understand The need to resolve how to allocate Rio fully the relationship between the Rio Grande Grande water supplies in southern New Mexico Projects allocations and those made under the and around El Paso and Juarez had become 1938 Rio Grande Compact, one needs to delve increasingly important in the two decades preced- into the histories of both the Project and the 1938 ing the 1904 National Irrigation Congress. During Compact. this period, water supplies had dwindled in the First, a little of the history of the Rio Grande Mesilla and El Paso valleys as settlement had Project. grown in the upper part of the basin in Colorados In November 1904, glowing accounts began San Luis Valley. The increased population in the to appear in newspaper articles in the western San Luis Valley had resulted in a dramatic decline WRRI United States that an important compromise had of the non-flood flows of the Rio Grande that Conference Proceedings 1999 2 The Rio Grande Compact: formerly had reached the Mesilla and El Paso one at Elephant Butte. In addition, proponents of Its the Law! valleys. As the river had become drier and drier the Elephant Butte plan resisted the international prior to 1904, residents of the two valleys had dam because they understood it would flood a developed two ambitious but competing plans to large part of southern New Mexico. compensate for the reduced flows. The conflict over these opposing propositions Mesilla Valley residents had backed a solu- had raged for many years by the time the 1904 The History tion to their water shortage problems by support- National Irrigation Congress convened, and the of the ing the proposal by Nathan Boyds Rio Grande struggle had become so fierce that it had involved Rio Grande Dam and Irrigation Company to build a reservoir the highest levels of the U.S. State Department Compact at Elephant Butte, where the U.S. Bureau of after increasingly vehement demands by Mexico of 1938 Reclamations Elephant Butte Reservoir presently which were supported by Texansthat Americans exists. The companys planned Elephant Butte cease interfering with Rio Grande water destined Reservoir was to store spring flood waters. The for farms around Juarez and El Paso. Because of company would then supply irrigation water to these diplomatic troubles, the contest between the several New Mexico valleys along the Rio Elephant Butte Dam and the reservoir just above Grande, including the Mesilla Valley. Of course, El Paso also had included a nearly decade-long Boyd and his supporters hoped to benefit finan- lawsuit by the United States Government to block cially from the success of his company, and they the efforts of the Rio Grande Dam and Irrigation also anticipated that the reservoir would increase Company in order to find some means of satisfy- settlement on the lower river and help win state- ing Mexicos demands for water. The controversy hood for New Mexico, which remained a territory over which dam would be built also had been the until 1912. focus of intense debate in Congress, when Texass Simultaneous to the plans of the Rio Grande Congressional delegation repeatedly introduced Dam and Irrigation Company, residents down- bills over several years to authorize the interna- stream around El Paso and Juarez endorsed a tional dam at El Paso.

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