AZ vs. CA:25 California Exhibits, Vol. XXV; Nos. 7501-7859

page 367

REAUTHORIZING GILA PROJECT 367 STATEMENT OF CHARLES A. CARSON, SPECIAL ATTORNEY, STATE OF ARIZONA, ON COLORADO RIVER HATTERS, PHOENIX, ARIZ. Mr. Cabson. Yes, Mr. Chairman. My name is Charles A. Carson, of Phoenix, Ariz., appearing here on behalf of the State of Arizona as special attorney for the State of Arizona in connection with Colorado River matters, under an act of the Arizona Legislature, which authorized the Governor to appoint attorneys and engineers. REAUTHORIZING GILA PROJECT 380 This Act shall not take effect * * * until the State of California, by act of its legislature, shall agree irrevocably and unconditionally with the United States and for the benefit of the States of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, as an express covenant and in consideration of the passage of this Act, that the aggregate annual consumptive use (diversions less returns to river) of water of and from the Colorado River for use in the State of California, including all uses under contracts made under the provisions of this Act and all water necessary for the supply of any rights which may now exist, shall not exceed four million four hundred thousand acre-feet of the waters apportioned to the lower basin States by paragraph (a) of article III of the Colorado River compact, plus not more than one-half of any excess or surplus waters unapportioned by said compact, such uses always to be subject to the terms of said compact. I want to call your attention specifically to the fact that under this limitation with California enacted by an act of its legislature in 1929, in exact compliance with this requirement, III (b) water is not mentioned. California cannot lawfully use any water of the Colorado River system except 4,400,000 acre-feet of III (a) water, plus not more than one-half of any excess or surplus waters unapportioned by said compact. ****** REAUTHORIZING GILA PROJECT 402 Now, I would like to correct myself in one particular. We have discussed this basin so many times and have always talked about the upper basin States being composed of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. Part of Arizona is also in the upper basin-this dotted line being the dividing point [indicating at map]. We have talked about the lower basin being California, Arizona, and Nevada, but a part of Utah, the southwest corner of Utah, is also a part of the lower basin, as is the western part and southwestern part of New Mexico, this [indicating at map] being the dividing line in New Mexico. We have been talking also of the 2,80Q,000 acre-feet of water to be delivered to Arizona by this contract. That is not the exact amount; it is subject to reductions by virtue of the use in those portions of Utah and New Mexico whicli are in the lower basin, and by some other matters that will be discussed by Mr. Baker, our engineer, when he gives the figures on the water supply.