| OCR Text |
Show Stages of Past Development In the control and use of waters in the basin, three distinct stages are readily discernible. Two have now been completed, but a brief description of each will assist in understanding the present situation and possibilities. The first stage of de- velopment was characterized by a dominance of private groups and community enterprise. The second marked the beginning of large-scale public attention to the problems and needs of the basin. The third stage, upon the threshold of which the basin now stands, will be one of integrated develop- ment of the two major basin divisions. The First Stage Irrigation in the basin probably is almost as old as its occupancy by man. The first white irrigators date back to the Arizona Jesuit missions in 1732. These operations were preceded by practices of primitive peoples whose canals in the Gila Valley possibly served as much as 250,000 acres. The year 1854, however, marks the beginning of modern irrigation at both ends of the basin, in Wyoming and in Arizona. With the mining developments in Colorado and the need for local crops came the Grand Valley Canal of 1883, later to become an integral part of the Grand Valley Project, an early Bureau of Reclamation project. Other early Federal projects were the Un- compahgre in Colorado, Strawberry Project in Utah, and the Yuma and Salt River Projects in Arizona. Indian projects were also undertaken on various reservations. Irrigation continued to ex- pand in both ends of the basin and by 1922 the following areas were irrigated: Acres Upper basin_______________* 1,450, 000 Lower basin_______________ * 950, 000 Total United States- 2,400,000 Mexico___________________ 200, 000 Total______________ 2,600,000 1 About one-half federally constructed. a More than one-half privately constructed. Irrigation in the upper basin was mainly in scat- tered small developments on the main stream and many tributaries. Exports amounting to 115,000 acre-feet annually had developed. Topography, financial difficulties, climate, and low crop values were limiting the rate of irrigation expansion in the upper basin. Development in the lower basin, with its climatic conditions favorable to intensive cultivation of semi- tropical fruits, cotton, and other crops, was hamp- ered by limited low season stream flows. Irrigation on the Gila was well advanced. The Imperial Valley, which then had over 400,000 acres under irrigation by direct diversion from the Colorado River without storage regulation, suffered a water shortage in each low-water year. The canal serv- ing Imperial Valley lands also supplied water for the irrigation of 200,000 acres or more in Mexico, thus exporting some 3 million acre-feet annually out of the basin. Uncontrolled, the Colorado River was a natural menace. In 1905 the river, swollen by flood waters, broke through a cut and poured for 16 months its entire flow into Imperial Valley fields, destroying 30,000 acres of arable land, railroads, highways, and homes. In other instances, levees were con- tinuously being breached. The need for flood con- trol was the prime motivating reason for upstream storage at Hoover Dam. Until 1920, the existing hydroelectric power de- velopments in the basin were largely confined to the tributaries. Thirty-six small plants existed with a combined capacity of only 37,000 kilowatts. The southern California coastal plains centering around Los Angeles were experiencing phenomenal growth. A great potential power market was being created. It was evident that the California metropolitan area would soon demand a new source of municipal water supply. Thus the needs for power and mu- nicipal water became an additional and potent reason for urging the development of the Colorado River. The Second Stage In the years prior to 1922, the rate of develop- ment in the upper basin was lagging behind that in the lower basin. The lower basin, growing more rapidly in population than the upper basin, was pressing for development of the lower river and the upper basin was objecting. It was rapidly be- coming apparent that the normal flow of the Colo- rado River would not be adequate to supply all of the uses envisioned by the basin States. The proposals for storage in the lower basin without guarantees to the upper basin States were regarded by the latter as threatening to establish priorities 455 |
