The Colorado River Compact is a 1922 agreement that regulates water distribution among seven states in the southwestern United States. The contract is about the area within the drainage basin of the Colorado River.
The agreement, originally proposed by attorney Delph Carpenter,[1] was signed at a meeting at Bishop's Lodge, near Santa Fe, New Mexico, by representatives of the seven states the Colorado river and its tributaries pass through on the way to Mexico. The agreement was promoted by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover.
The Colorado River is managed and operated under numerous compacts, federal laws, an international treaty, court decisions and decrees, contracts, and regulatory guidelines collectively known as "the Law of the River".[2]