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Show COMPACT-STATEMENT BY NORVIEL----ARIZONA A59 making the division point at Lee's Ferry, which is about midway of the natural dividing mountains; that being the only practical accessible point for hundreds of miles, and at that point there is now established a first-class gauging station for the measurement of the water of the river, and is, too, one of the most promising dam sites on the river; putting the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico in the upper division and the states of Arizona, California and Nevada in the lower division. In the upper basin, those portions of all the states that drain into the river above Lee's Ferry and in the lower basin those portions of all the states that drain into the river below Lee's Ferry. The U. S. reclamation service report: "Problems of Imperial Valley and Vicinity," shows there are irrigated in the upper basin 1,526,000 acres, consuming approximately 2,400,000 acre feet of water per annum; that the feasible irrigable new acreage in the upper basin is 2,500,000, with a need for an additional supply of water of 3,750,000 acre feet per annum, or an ultimate acreage in the upper basin, present and prospective, of 4,000,000 acres, with a consumptive use of water of 6,250,000 acre feet, with a possible intermountain diversion of 350,000 acre feet, making a total consumptive use in the upper basin of 6,600,000 acre feet per annum, foreseen at present. That the irrigated acreage in the lower basin corrected to date from the Colorado river direct is 513,000, using 2,560,000 acre feet of water per annum; that the known new acreage feasibly irrigable in the lower basin is 754,000, with a demand for 2,540,000 acre feet, making a total of 1,267,000 acres, and a demand for 6,100,000 acre feet of water per annum. Therefore, the second principle in the compact, the division of the beneficial use of water in the two basins, 7,500,000 acre feet per annum to each basin. As the river is not regular in its flow, great floods come down at certain seasons of the year which are a constant menace to the Palo Verde and Imperial valleys in California and the Yuma valley in Arizona, it is recognized that the river must be controlled for the double purpose of protecting the lower valleys from the menace of flood and storing the water to extend the reclamation of lands, for without storage the natural flow during the irrigating season is barely sufficient to supply the present demand and in some dry years there is not enough; then, too, as we have said, the annual flow fluctuates from 9,000,000 acre feet to 26,000,000 acre feet, and the water of years of abundance must be stored as a reserve against those of famine and the flow regulated as near as possible. A study of the river discloses an average flow past the station at Yuma of 17,400,000 acre feet per annum; this is below all diversion except the Imperial valley; it is also below all inflowing streams. The station at Laguna dam shows 16,400,000 acre feet per annum. These |
