Attorney General's Office

These records document water issues before the Colorado River Commission.

This series contains assorted legal records, correspondence, and reports pertaining to Utah's role in the Colorado River Commission. There are two distinct set of records present in this series, split between paper holdings and microfilm. Much of the physical paper content include the legal records created in the federal Arizona V. California case. It is this case (heard by the U.S. Supreme Court) that is primarily responsible for establishing water rights between states engaged in the Colorado River Compact. In addition to records that help to clarify interactions between states and their rights to water from the Colorado River, there are also records that help clarify transnational agreements concerning water use between the United States and Mexico.

The microfilm holdings in this series are comprised of a variety of legal records and published court reports from early in the 20th century. These records help to spell out the legal precedents and decisions that have impacted the use of the Colorado River in Utah. The records present on these reels include court records, published transcripts, and published decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court. It appears that a majority of the records present on these microfilm reels were document stamped (a practice engaged in by the Utah State Archives early in the agency's history). The whereabouts of the physical holdings found on these microfilm reels (created in 1974) is currently unknown. The records that appear on the microfilm do not appear to replicate the physical holdings attached to this series.

But while the majority of the records in this series detail the Arizona V. California case there are other records present that help to provide valuable historical insight on a host of other significant issues related to the human regulation and use of the Colorado River. This includes engineering and historical information about dam development on the Colorado River, and the actions of the Upper and Lower Colorado River Commissions in citing and coordinating the management of massive construction efforts (such as the construction of Hoover Dam which was completed in 1936). Among the most controversial of these reclamation activities was the 1956 decision to move a proposed dam site from the Echo Park region of the Unita Basin (near Dinosaur National Monument) to Glen Canyon (creating Lake Powell). This action (still highly controversial among environmental groups) set a precedent that prevents any federal reclamation activity from taking place within the boundaries of any National Park or National Monument.