Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1138450
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 10:26:49+00:00

Document:
68 opment of the two means provided by the Constitution for adjusting interstate controversies. The compact- the legislative means-adapts to our Union of sovereign States the age-old treaty-making power of independent sovereign nations. Adjustment by compact without a judicial or quasi-judicial determination of existing rights had been practiced in the Colonies, was practiced by the States before the adoption of the Constitution, and had been extensively practiced in the United States for nearly half a century before this Court first applied the judicial means in settling the boundary dispute in Rhode Island v. Massachusetts, 12 Pet. 657, 723-725. As earlier noted, the Court also pointed out that whether apportionment of the waters of an interstate stream be made by compact or by decree of the Supreme Court, "the appor- tionment is binding upon the citizens of each State and all water claimants, even where the State had granted the water rights before it entered into the compact." ^ Moreover, the Court held that whether the waters of an interstate stream must be apportioned between two states "is a question of 'federal common law' upon which neither the statutes nor the decisions of either State can be conclusive."297 Another holding of significance in regard to interstate com- pacts is a recent decision by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia in State ex rel. Dyer v. Sims.29* West Vir- ginia is a signatory state to the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Compact which became effective as to West Virginia, in 1948. The legislature of that State appropriated $12,250 as its propor- tionate share, under the compact terms, of the Commission ex- penses for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1950. The act also ratified the compact and vested certain powers in the compact Commission. A requisition upon the auditor to make the "• 304 U. S. at 106. m 304 U. S. at 110, citing Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U. S. 46,95, 97-98 (1907); Connecticut v. Massachusetts, 282 U. S. 660, 669-671 (1931); New Jersey v. New York, 283 U. S. 336, 342-343 (1931) ; Washington v. Oregon, 297 U. S. 517, 528 (1936). 298133 W. Va. -, 58 S. E. 2d 766, decided April 4,1950.

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