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Show 177 zona, the only other state having access to mainstream water. Since the first paragraph limited California to 4,400,000 acre-feet of the 7,500,000 acre-feet of water "apportioned ... by paragraph (a) of Article III," and Nevada could only use 300,000 acre-feet, there would be left 2,800,000 of the 7,500,000 acre-feet for Arizona if the apportionment were intended to be only of mainstream water among these three states. Senator Pittman confirmed this when he concluded that: "... Arizona today has practically allocated to it 2,800,000 acre-feet of water in the main Colorado River."'9 (emphasis added) Similarly, since California was limited to one-half of "excess or surplus waters," and since Nevada represented that she could not utilize any of this water, Arizona became the inevitable beneficiary of the other half. This construction of Section 4(a) as applying only to the mainstream of the Colorado River requires rejection of California's principal contention. The crux of her case lies in the view that the Project Act adopts and applies the Compact method of accounting. Thus California would total all uses of System water in the Lower Basin until the sum of 7,500,000 has been reached, after which she would assign all remaining uses to "excess or surplus waters unapportioned by said compact." There being no tributaries in California, the effect of this thesis is, of course, to exhaust the 7,500,000 apportionment with the help of tributary uses outside of California and to leave a large supply of mainstream water which California shares as "surplus." The effect of California's accounting system is disclosed in Part XII of her Proposed Findings and Conclusions. The California position is there revealed as follows: 3670 Cong. Rec. 469 (1928), Ariz. Legis. Hist. p. 82. |
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Original Report: State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Imperial 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 |