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Show 66 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER should be measured by a "stream depletion theory" rather than the "diversion less returns theory" advanced by California. Debler contended there was sufficient water in the lower basin's share of the river for the Central Arizona Project, that Arizona was entitled to the water, and that the project was feasible from an engineering stand- point. Another lengthy pro-Arizona statement was submitted by Sidney Kartus,38 president of the Arizona Highline Reclamation Association. Kartus was McFarland's best "emotion" witness. His plea was tearful, dramatic and eloquent. He advocated building the pump lift from Lake Havasu at once and using it while the 143-mile tunnel was being constructed. When the tunnel was completed, the pump lift would be placed on a stand-by basis. In this proposal he differed with Hayden, McFarland and the Reclamation Bureau, but he did not differ with them in asserting that the project was vitally necessary. Kartus was extreme in his prediction of things to come. He pictured the entire state of Arizona as a land of ruin, with thousands of people trudging wearily and hopelessly along barren roads, seeking salvation beyond the horizon, behind them a land of devastation, a ghost-state with only the desert winds breaking the silence. Had anyone reading Kartus's statement been able to look a short distance into the future, they might well have wondered on what basis he rested his predictions. For he was soon to be repudiated by Arizonans who held higher and more influential positions, and, in the light of numerous editorials in Arizona newspapers and the |
