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Show CHAPTER II 41 C.4 Yuma Mesa Division-Gild Project-Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage District The Gila Gravity Main Canal, 20.7 miles in length, originates at Imperial Dam and ends at the Yuma Mesa Pumping Plant. Water is then pumped 52 feet to the head of the mesa distribution system. Delivery of water to lands on the Yuma Mesa was initiated prior to execution of a repayment contract with the Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage District under authority of Section 7 of the Act of August 4, 1939, 53 Stat. 1187, since the majority of the lands involved were in public ownership. Of the 19,970 acres under the distribution system, 14,411 acres were in cultivation at the end of 1954; a majority of these lands were opened to homestead entry under Public Notice No. 4 on December 10, 1947, and Public Notice No. 9 on January 21, 1952. A construction, water delivery and repayment contract (No. 14-06-W-102) was executed by the United States and the District on May 26, 1956, under authority of the Act of January 28, 1956, 70 Stat. 5. The contract provided for the delivery to or for the District of water diverted at Imperial Dam at a maximum rate of diversion at Imperial Dam of 520 ftVs, and delivered at Station 1099 + 56.99 on the Gila Gravity Main Canal; i.e., the Yuma Mesa Pumping Plant, in such quantities as may be reasonably required and beneficially used for the irrigation of not to exceed 25,000 irrigable acres. As was done in the foregoing Wellton-Mohawk contract, the obligation to deliver water was subject to its availability for the division under the provisions of the Colorado River Compact, the Boulder Canyon Project Act, the Gila Reauthorization Act, and the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944. The contract provided for limited drainage works, transfer of operation and maintenance, repayment by the District of its share of the capital costs of constructed works and other costs totalling $5,641,167 over a 60-year period following a development period, the establishment of two irrigation blocks, and the allocation of costs thereto on the basis of land classifications, release of contracts and mortgages covering predevelop-ment charges, use of variable repayment formula, power and energy for Gila Project purposes, establishment of a reserve fund, maintenance of books and records, excess land provisions, and validation of the contract in the Arizona courts. On January 1, 1959, the District assumed O&M of the irrigation works below the afterbay of the Yuma Mesa Pumping Plant. On January 1, 1961, the District took over O&M of the Pumping Plant. A supplemental and amendatory contract with the District, dated February 26, 1969, provided for the irrigation of approximately 400 acres of lands in substitution for an equivalent number of acres of District lands which had been converted from agricultural to urban use, and for the District's assumption of its share of annual O&M costs of the drain from the Gila Gravity Main Canal to the Colorado River. A second supplementary agreement, dated March 23, 1972, provided for studies for a regulating reservoir which the District did not pursue. As of September 30, 1977, $759,085 had been repaid. C.4.1 Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage District Water Use The Yuma Mesa water delivery contract of May 26, 1956, No. 14-06-W-102, contains no specific reference to the quantity of water to be delivered. Instead, the United States agreed to deliver such quantities as may be reasonably required and beneficially used for the irrigation of not to exceed 25,000 irrigable acres, subject, among other things, to its availability under the Gila Reauthorization Act; e.g., the beneficial consumptive use of not more than 300,000 acre-feet of water per annum diverted from the river for the Yuma Mesa Division (which includes the 15,000 acres in the North and South Gila Valleys in addition to the 25,000 acres of Yuma Mesa lands), and at a maximum rate of diversion of 520 ftVs at Imperial Dam. In 1975, 1976, and 1977, the District consumptively used 226,665, 219,057, and 211,508 acre-feet of water, respectively; i.e., diversions less measured return flows. This included deliveries in 1975 of 2,323 acre-feet to 7 small contractors, of which the Marine Corps Air Station used 1,994 acre-feet. Similarly, in 1976 there were included deliveries of 2,088 acre-feet to the same small contractors, of which the Marine Corps Air Station used 1,871 acre-feet. In 1977 there were included deliveries of 2,267 acre-feet to these |
