OCR Text |
Show __2__ Mr. Maddock. Mr. Chairman, Senators, and gentlemen, I spoke yesterday and just touched on the fact that we think there are some fundamental errors in the Santa Fe compact. We think these can be corrected so we could exist under it, but we would like to point out to you what we think is a real, fundamental error. There are two apparent allocations or dividers of water in the bill. There is one that says the upper basin must send down to the lower basin 75.000,000 acre-feet in any 10-year period, which is an average of 7,500,000 acre-feet. As against this, there is a provision in the Santa Fe compact that there is allocated to the lower basin each year 7,500,000 acre-feet, and then later, another 1,000,000, or a total of 8,500,000. Naturally, you would think the 8,500,000 allocation is larger than the 7,500,000, but the contrary is true. This is because they anticipated that the Gila amounted to 1,000,000 acre-feet. If that were true it would be all right. As a matter of fact, there are over 3,000,000 acre-feet in the complete Gila. Perhaps, eventually there will be 4,000,000, but we can easily see 3,000,000 acre-feet at the present time. This is appropriated and practically being used right now. When we subtract the 3,000,000 acre-feet of the Gila from the 8,500,000, it means there is only 5,500,000 acre-feet that we are allowed in the lower basin to use out of the main stream, despite the fact that the compact says the average of 7,500,000 acre-feet shall come down to us. This means there are 2,000,000 acre-feet of water in the main stream that are unallotted. In addition to this, there is another unallocated amount of water spoken of and contemplated in the bill, which is the amount of water there is in the river in excess of the amount that was divided at Santa Fe. |
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. |