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Show 138 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER Arizona Project would not cost at least twice as much as the present estimates." Information supplied by the California Colorado River Association showed how large landowners would benefit from the project. It was made public through the offices of Reps. Engle, Phillips, Sheppard and Poul- son in a joint statement which said: 152 "The proposed project would give benefits of more than $500,000 each to a select four hundred large land- owners. This disclosure of unprecedented favoritism to private landowners comes from cleverly concealed facts contained in the official government report on the pro- ject. "Plans for the $738,400,000 project . . . call for an expenditure of $420,019,000 for irrigation features. "Deeply buried in the Reclamation Bureau's report are to be found these statements: 1. An estimated 6,000 farms are in the project area. 2. Seven per cent of these farms are 500 acres or larger. 3. The seven per cent contain 55 per cent of the irrigated land. "Seven per cent of 6,000 farms is 420 farms. "As these 420 privately-owned farms contain 55 per cent of the irrigated land, it is therefore proposed to give them more than half of the benefits of $420,019,000 that would be spent for irrigation features. "That amounts to $231,010,450, or an average of about $550,000 for each farm. "The other 5,580 farms in the project would get only 45 per cent of the irrigation benefits. "This is unequaled class legislation." The disclosure caused widespread comment in both Congress and the nation's press, from the largest metro- politan dailies to small country weeklies. Quite naturally |
