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Show A64 APPENDIX 208 consumptive use of water with the view of permitting the largest development throughout the basin without creating cause for interstate strife and litigation. The preferential uses recognized by the pact are agriculture, domestic (which is defined to include farming, stock growing, municipal, mining, industrial and other like purposes), power and navigation. Agriculture and domestic uses are placed on a parity and given the first place in the order of preferential right of use. This is in harmony with the law of our own state and also with the law of every state in the basin. It is in harmony with the prevailing sentiment of the people of this country. The commission, therefore in giving preference to agriculture and domestic uses over power merely recognized existing law and the overwhelming public opinion on the subject that lies back of that law. Power, therefore, is given second place in the order of preferential right of use. The compact also makes navigation subordinate to agriculture, domestic, and power uses. The purpose of this is to prevent serious embarrassment to the development of the river for agriculture, domestic and power uses should the Colorado river continue to be regarded in theory, although it is not in fact, a navigable river. This provision requires the consent of congress before it may become effective. It is expressly provided, however, that the disapproval of congress of this provision will not affect the other provisions of the compact. The Colorado river basin within the United States embraces an area of 244,000 square miles. It includes portions of the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, California, and nearly the whole of Arizona. The compact divides this basin into an upper and lower basin. The upper basin comprises that portion of the watershed within and from which water naturally drains into the Colorado river above Lee's Ferry, which is located south of the Arizona-Utah line and below the mouth of the Paria river. The lower basin comprises that part of the watershed within and from which water naturally drains into the Colorado river below Lee's Ferry, together with the Imperial and Coachella valleys in California. While there is no great disparity in the sizes of the two divisions of the basin, there are certain marked differences in other respects. Ninety-one percent of the water of the entire watershed has its origin in the mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah and not more than six percent comes from Islevada, Arizona, and California. Ninety-four percent, therefore, of the water that passes Yuma originates above the Arizona-Utah line. Again, nearly 1,000 miles of canyon separate the lands upon which water may be beneficially applied in the upper basin from the lands upon which water may be beneficially used in the lower basin. It is a physical fact that water may not be diverted for agricultural uses in Arizona by means of |
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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] : |