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Show COMPACT-REPORT BY CALDWELL----UTAH A119 water, an adjustment for the sake of equity may be had out of the 6,000,000 acre-feet of water unapportioned except that the Mexican burden, if the United States assumes any, shall be taken from the 6,000,000 acre-feet surplus unapportioned, before any further apportionment is made. 9. The States of the upper division would in all probability consume less than 1% acre-feet of water per acre of land irrigated except that the small portion which may be diverted from the Colorado River Basin t>y tunneling will be wholly consumed. On a basis of 1% acre-feet per acre consumptive use, the Upper States would be able to irrigate 5,000,000 acres out of 75,000,000 acre-feet during a ten-year period. 10. The Lower Basin States, for the most part, when they divert their water, wholly consume it and they get no credit for use of return flow for it does not exist, and they are, therefore, limited to the diversion of 8,500,000 acre-feet and are held strictly to the requirement of "consumptive beneficial use" of such as they do divert. 11. Out of the apportionment of 16,000,000 acre-feet, as now made by the provisions of the compact, each of the basins is required to stand its own losses due to evaporation from the surfaces of large reservoirs, etc., and out-basin diversions are not prohibited. 12. The creation of 5,000,000 acre-feet storage capacity in the river for the benefit of the Lower Basin, automatically terminates claims which Lower Basin users may assert as against users in the Upper Basin. I am quite sure that there is nothing in this compact that in any way does violence to any of the fundamental water-rights practice and principles which have grown up in Utah and the arid West during the past three-quarters of a century, and that in every way where it is a departure that it is an advantage and a step forward. I believe that the legislature of the State of Utah should ratify this compact as it now exists without any hesitation and in the interest of the development of the Colorado River, the largest single undeveloped resource of the United States today. The compact in full is in the hands of the Members of the Senate. |
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Original book: [State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, California, City of San Diego, California, and County of San Diego, California, defendants, United States of America, State of Nevada, State of New Mexico, State of Utah, interveners] : |