OCR Text |
Show 460 The Secretary of the Interior is directed: m to cause the operation of said works to be coordinated and integrated with the operation of existing and future features of the Central Valley project in such manner as will effectuate the fullest and most economic utilization of the land and water resources of the Central Valley project of California for the widest possible public benefit. Colorado River Basin.-Early relevant events concerning the Colorado Basin trace progress toward adoption of the Boulder Canyon Project Act in 1928. In 1904, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to investigate and report on the use of the waters of the lower Colorado River for the irrigation of arid lands in Arizona and California.803 By the 1920 Kinkaid Act, he was directed to make an examination and report on the possibilities for irrigation of the Imperial Valley in California by diversion of water from the lower Colorado.304 The resulting report was submitted in 1922, and bills were vainly introduced to carry out its recom- mendations.305 Two years later, the Bureau of Reclamation submitted to the Senate Committee on Irrigation and Recla- mation a voluminous report on development of the Colorado River.806 During the 1925 debate in the Senate on legislation laying the basis for the "308 Reports," several Senators voiced con- cern lest authorization of an additional survey further delay approval of the Bureau's program for development of the Colorado Basin.307 Consequently, a proviso was added to the 802 § 4, 63 Stat. -. 808 Sen. J. Res. 71, April 28,1904, 33 Stat. 591. 804 Act of May 18, 1920, 41 Stat. 600. 805 Sen. Doc. No. 142, 67th Cong., 2d sess. (1922); see, History and First Annual Report, The Metropolitan Water District of Southern Cali- fornia, pp. 31-32 (1939). 808 See Sen. Rep. No. 592, Part 1, 70th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 13-14 (1928);" and H. Rep. No. 918, 70th Cong., 1st sess., p. 10 (1928). The Bureau of Reclama- tion was then known as the Reclamation Service. m 66 Cong. Reo. 4804-4809. |