Mark Twain once remarked that in the West, “whiskey
is for drinking, water is for fighting.” But Delphus E. Carpenter,
who spearheaded the 1922 Colorado River Compact among seven states,
would have disagreed twice over. Carpenter not only abstained from
spirits, but believed water problems could be resolved through
diplomacy instead of fisticuffs. His life is the subject of a new
book, Silver Fox of the Rockies, by Daniel
Tyler.
Carpenter believed water compacts, which are based
on the United States Constitution, would instill “comity” —
cooperation — among Western states and discourage lawsuits
that led to conflict and federal intervention on streams. The
Colorado River Compact was the maiden voyage for the compact idea,
and a dozen more water agreements across the country followed the
same model over the next 50 years.
Today, it’s easy
to question the success of the Colorado River Compact.
Miscalculations shortchanged the Upper Basin states of Colorado,
Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, and led to almost 30 years of court
battles among the Lower Basin states of Nevada, Arizona and
California. The compact has other flaws from a modern perspective:
In 1922, “conservation” meant construction of Hoover Dam, and the
agreement ignored Indian water rights, which have since reduced
states’ anticipated take.
But Carpenter’s
goal remains the ambition of conservationists today, although
“consensus” has replaced comity as the buzzword. Author Tyler
believes Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is “the man whose
leadership most closely parallels” that of the unsung Carpenter.
But Tyler’s example of the Bush administration’s Water
2025 initiative, which gave lip service to conservation while
killing salmon in the Klamath and silvery minnows in the Rio
Grande, is more dark comedy than deft comity. Today’s West
could use water policy leaders who follow the efforts of Delph
Carpenter instead of the words of Mark Twain.
Silver Fox of the Rockies: Delphus E. Carpenter and
Western Water Compacts
Daniel Tyler
392 pages, hardcover $34.95.
University of Oklahoma
Press, 2003
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The life of an unsung Western water diplomat.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
