AZ vs. CA:25 California Exhibits, Vol. XXV; Nos. 7501-7859

page 8

8 vada and New Mexico. Of the appropriated water so diverted below Lee Ferry, 3,500,000 acre-feet are annually diverted, used and consumed in Arizona. Of the appropriated water so diverted, used and consumed in Arizona, 2,900,000 acre-feet are diverted from the Gila River and its tributaries. Of the total flow of the Colorado River and its tributaries in the United States, 9,000,000 acre-feet were on June 25, 1929, ever since have been, and are now wholly unappropriated. All of said unappropriated water flows in Arizona and on the boundary thereof; all of it is needed and can be put to beneficial use in Arizona; and all of it is subject to appropriation under the laws of Arizona. Of said unappropriated water, 8,000,000 acre-feet are flowing in the main stream of the Colorado River, and 1,000,000 acre-feet in tributaries entering said river between Lee Ferry and Laguna Dam. All of the water of the Gila River and its tributaries was appropriated and put to beneficial use in Arizona and New Mexico prior to June 25, 1929. There was not on said date, nor has there since been, nor is there now, any unappropriated water in the Gila River or any of its tributaries. To "appropriate" water means to take and divert a specified quantity thereof and put it to beneficial use in accordance with the laws of the State where such water is found, and, by so doing, to acquire, under said laws, a vested right to take and divert from the same source, and to use and consume, the same quantity of water annually forever, subject only to the rights of prior appropriators. Such is the sense in which the word "appropriate" and its derivatives are used in this bill of complaint. VIII All land in the drainage basin of the Colorado River is arid in character. In those parts of said basin