OCR Text |
Show -37- Later on it came to my knowledge that the Geological Survey was making an extended investigation of the Colorado in the locality involved, and thereupon a request was made to the Secretary of the Interior asking that the officers of the Geological Survey be allowed to investigate and report in regard to this matter. I prepared a memorandum for their guidance in such investigation, a copy of which here follows: Memorandum. Prepared by M. C. Burch, Department of Justice, in the matter of the diversion of the waters of the Colorado River. Complaints having been made to the Department of States, alleging that a company known as the Imperial Land Company, having its headquarters at Los Angeles, California, was diverting water from the Colorado River, in the State of California at or just below Yuma, Arizona, and that this was being done contrary to the doctrine enunciated by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of the U. S. v. The Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co. et al., the Department of State transmitted to the Department of Justice these complaints with the request that the matter be investigated with a view to ascertaining whether the complaints were well-founded. Mr. D. D. Caldwell, an official of the Department of Justice visited the locality in question and found, in substance, that the company was taking water from the Colorado River on the California side a short distance below Yuma; that it was then run southerly through a canal into the Republic of Mexico; that there, taking advantage of an old, natural water-course that had ceased |
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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] : California exhibits. |