Who brought Gilpin water?

Forrest Whitman

06/05/2008 - The snow is melting and it's a great spring runoff!  All the gloomy last fall predictions made by climatologists may not come true. We went into December with snow coverage in the Lake Powell Basin at 70% below average. Today the Powell level is coming back up. Last fall severe drought did cover the west. Now in Gilpin things look good. As I write, snow melt is above average all across Colorado. At the water meetings in Gunnison two weeks ago it was announced that the South Platte main gage at Kersey will register 260 thousand acre feet. A 30 year average for that site is 102! Water in our streams, water in our wells, water in our storage tanks: it's a welcome gift. As we use that gift we could remember our Colorado history. “The Silver Fox of the Rockies”, Delphus Carpenter, spent a lifetime reminding us that no water division in the state is really separate from any other one. The water we shower with in Gilpin is part of a system affecting all seven Water Divisions as well as our own basin, The South Platte. While we do have trouble meeting our interstate water claims right here in our own basin, Carpenter is responsible for many of the decisions that supply us with what we enjoy.

Colorado's “Silver Fox” of Water Battles

  There's a well written biography of Delphus Carpenter available in print. In it Daniel Tyler tells the tale of how this one man was key to the seven-state Colorado River Compact, insured Colorado's water supply, and brought a century of water wars to a truce. Carpenter was Colorado's water commissioner for many years. He was there in 1907 when the Kansas vs. Colorado decision came down from the U. S. Supreme Court, and our biggest water trouble began to brew. Carpenter saw then that endless litigation was on the horizon, because that court decision modified the “Colorado doctrine of prior appropriation.” The doctrine had long stated that water belonged to those who first put it to beneficial use (“first in time first in right”). After 1907 water rights betweens states had to consider “equitable apportionment.” Carpenter was pushed into a whole new world of water law.

  This 1907 federal ruling came at a time when Carpenter was fighting at least six other water battles with neighboring states. The most famous was a battle with Wyoming over Laramie River water. Delph had a special fondness for that river. As a young man he'd climbed many peaks around Glendevy, Colorado and planted a Prince Albert tobacco can at the top of one unnamed peak calling it “Carpenter Peak.” Here was the source of the Larimie River and Carpenter was ready to fight Wyoming for those water rights. Carpenter battled Wyoming for 10 years and was in court 257 days! Carpenter's health was badly compromised by his non-stop work during this time. In 1918 he had a severe bout with influenza and often suffered ill health for the rest of his life.

  The man was driven to fight for Colorado water and accepted seemingly endless work and travel. In the end the Supreme Court ruling was ambiguous in Colorado vs. Wyoming. Yes, said they, a state of origin could control water originating there if it was filed on before the neighboring state. But, actual beneficial use had to be balanced with prior appropriation. After all that money and time, after seeing his health go down, Carpenter was forced to concede that the U.S Supreme Court ruling was pretty much a draw. The irony was that during this time he negotiated water compacts in tougher situations and stayed out of court. One case close to home was between Nebraska and Colorado over our very own river system, the South Platte. It's a compact we honor and work with at our water round table meetings every month in 2008. Our Gilpin water supplies a tiny part of the water that's adjudicated, transferred, planned for and argued over right to the state line and beyond.

Thanks to The Silver Fox

  The grand daddy of all water battles was the seven state fight over who could control the Colorado River. Remember that some of our own watershed is supplied from the Colorado. Some of the water rushing through Rollinsville right now comes out of the Moffat water tunnel. The fight came to a head in 1922 at Bishop's Lodge near Santa Fe. Carpenter hung in there and after 18 meetings was beginning to be called “The Silver Fox of the Rockies.” The need for a compact was painfully obvious. Herbert Hoover, the federal representative, bluntly told all that if the western states could not agree the Federal Government would step in and simply set up an authority over the Colorado River. Delph Carpenter was a strong state's rights man. He hated the idea of Federal regulation and was sure the states could agree. 

  At first all of the states wanted all of the water, but that position was gradually abandoned. Carpenter's nemesis was the Arizona delegate W. S. Norviele. Arizona balked consistently at the idea of water averaging (over a 10 year period measured at Lee Ferry.) But, in the end Delph convinced him to at least not block the other six states as they agreed to that averaging plan. While it was not until 1944 that Arizona finally signed up, the other six states did agree and the compact has worked well.

  I'm sure I would not have gotten along with the Silver Fox. He was a dour and unforgiving man. The things he said at those water conferences are a mile away from the always cordial discussions at the current day 1177 water round tables and inter-basin meetings I participate in. At one point Carpenter said to Norvielle, “Isn't it always your disposition to get assurance for your dry deserts below and ask us to bear the brunt of that visitation of drought?” “If I am in error that that is your frame of mind, well and good, I beg your forgiveness.” Norelle responded, “You are forgiven for all your sins up to date.” The conference went on to work out a 10 point compact, with Arizona as an “observer.” At 6:30 p.m., November 24, 1922 in Santa Fe's historic Palace of the Governors, a compact was signed. We never think of it, but Gilpin's access to water was in the balance that day. 

Let's Not Waste It

  It is a great water year, but let's not waste water in Gilpin. All of the inter-state compact requirements and South Platte Agreements are still in place. We are part of a complex web of water agreements which will haunt us if we ignore them. The old Silver Fox would agree.