OCR Text |
Show -2- In apportioning the water between the upper and lower basins, adequate water was allocated to the upper basin in perpetuity to take care of all its future needs, making-it forever impossible to utilize this water in the lower basin for the reason that it will be impossible to finance an irrigation project, the waters of which may be claimed by the upper basin States at any time they desire to utilize them. Sufficient water was apportioned to the lower basin to meet the requirements of the program outlined by the United States Reclamation Service under Secretary of the Interior Fall and Arthur P. Davis, who is now the consulting engineer of the city of Los Angeles and an advocate of the Boulder Canyon project. Under the United States Reclamation Service program, from the water allocated to the lower basin, the maximum acreage of land which would be irrigated from the Colorado River proper in Arizona would be 280,000 acres. Of this 280,000 acres, 130,000 are already under irrigation in the Yuma project. Of the remainder, 110,000 acres are in the Parker Indian reservation, and the balance consists of lowlands along the river bottom which constitute drainage rather than irrigation projects. The advocates of the Colorado River compact, who contend that there is adequate water to meet the requirements of all the States, must be satisfied to see Arizona limited to 280,000 acres of land to be irrigated from the Colorado River. I am not satisfied with this apportionment. We have millions of acres of land in Arizona which it is possible to irrigate from the Colorado River. The only question is the one of practicability. |
Source |
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. |