 With little guidance on water allocation from the Supreme Court , proponents of the dam feared endless litigation . A Colorado attorney proposed that the seven states which fell within the river 's basin ( California , Nevada , Arizona , Utah , New Mexico , Colorado and Wyoming ) form an <unk> compact , with the approval of Congress . Such <unk> were authorized by Article I of the United States Constitution but had never been concluded among more than two states . In 1922 , representatives of seven states met with then @-@ Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover . Initial talks produced no result , but when the Supreme Court handed down the Wyoming v. Colorado decision <unk> the claims of the upstream states , they became anxious to reach an agreement . The resulting Colorado River Compact was signed on November 24 , 1922 . 
