AZ vs. CA:24 California Exhibits, Vol. XXIV; Miscellaneous

page A102

A102 APPENDIX 210 the interstate relations. No law of any State can have extraterritorial effect or interfere with the operation of the compact as between the States. "Beneficial Consumptive Use" In my original report (printed in the Senate Journal of January 5, 1923) I discussed and defined the term "beneficial consumptive use." In addition to the discussion there contained, I might add there is a vast difference between the term "beneficial use" and the term "beneficial consumptive use." A use may be beneficial and at the same time nonconsumptive or the use may be partly or wholly consumptive. A wholly consumptive use is a use which wholly consumes the water. A nonconsumptive use is a use in which no water is consumed (lost to the stream). "Consume" means to exhaust or destroy. The use of water for irrigation is but partially consumptive for the reason that a great part of the water diverted ultimately finds its way back to the stream. All uses which are beneficial are included within the apportionments (i. e. domestic, agricultural, power, etc.). The measure of the apportionment is the amount of water lost to the river. The "beneficial consumptive use" refers to the amount of water exhausted or lost to the stream in the process of making all beneficial uses. As recently defined by Director Davis, of the United States Reclamation Service, it is the "diversion minus the return flow" (Congressional Record, January 31, 1923, p. 2815). Water diverted and carried out of the basin of the Colorado River by the Strawberry, Moffat, or other tunnels or by canal into the Imperial Valley is wholly consumed as regards the Colorado River, because no part of it ever returns to that stream system. Amount of Flow at Lees Ferry The net measured flow of the Colorado River at Lees Ferry (after all uses above) was 16,000,000 acre-feet from September 30, 1921, to September 30, 1922, according to the report of the Director of the United States Geological Survey. The net flow of the whole river (after all uses above Yuma) has been measured and recorded at Yuma, Ariz, (below all tributaries including the Gila River), since 1899. The mean or average flow at Yuma for the 20-year period 1903-22 is 17,400,000 acre-feet per annum. The flow September 30, 1921, to September 30, 1922, at Yuma was 17,600,000 acre-feet. This was 200,000 acre-feet (1 percent) greater than the 20-year average. (See Congressional Record, January 31, 1923, p. 2819.) In other words, the flow of the river for that period was 101 percent of normal. The flow of 16,100,000 acre-feet at Lees Ferry therefore represents 101 percent of the average annual net flow of the river at that point (after deducting all water consumed during uses in the entire upper