OCR Text |
Show 16 Approximately 525,000 acres of land in the Gila River Basin are irrigated from the waters of the Gila and its tributaries, 520,000 acres of which are located in the State of Arizona and the remaining 5,000 acres in the State of New Mexico. XII Further Reclamation in Arizona and Its Economic Aspect Because of the arid character of her land, irrigation is of the utmost importance to the State of Arizona. During the past 25 years the population of said state has increased from 204,000 to 500,000, and the assessed valuation of taxable property in said state had increased from $83,769,000 to $714,945,000 at the beginning of the depression. A great part of said increase in population and wealth resulted from the constantly increasing use of irrigation in said state, and the consequent development of its agricultural land. The present welfare and prosperity of the state are largely the result of irrigation, and its future growth and progress are largely dependent upon the reclamation and irrigation of additional land. In addition to the land now being irrigated, there are more than 2,000,000 acres of land which are not irrigated, but are now susceptible of economic irrigation from the unappropriated water of the Colorado River and its tributaries, other than the Gila, and which cannot be irrigated from any other source. There are an additional 5,000,000 acres of land in Arizona potentially susceptible of economic irrigation from said |
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] : |