OCR Text |
Show able that all of the property values created in this valley will be wiped out, including farms and towns, as well as the revenues derived by the Southern Pacific Company. Ultimately the channel will be deepened in the main stream itself up to and beyond the town of Yuma, destroying the homes and farms there, the great railroad bridge, and the Government works at Laguna dam, above Yuma. It is difficult to estimate how many people have settled in the valley, the figures varying from 6,000 persons up to as high as 10,000. It is also difficult to ascertain how much money has been actually spent in real improvements. Town lots have been laid off, sold at auction, and several hundred buildings erected in the various small settlements scattered throughout the tract. The greater part of the public land has been taken up under the homestead or desert entry laws, and sufficient work has been done to secure title. Some crops have been raised, and under favorable conditions the output in the near future will be large. The actual amount of tangible wealth or securities possessed by the settlers to-day upon which money can be raised is believed to be very small. Nearly all individual property has been expended in securing water rights from the California Development Company, or from the other organizations handling the water supply and controlled by this company. It is evident that the people have slender resources to fall back upon, and in view of the threatened calamity are practically helpless. The California Development Company is also unable to meet the exigency. The obligations assumed by the sale of water rights are so great that the property of the company is not adequate to meet these obligations; in other words, a gift of the visible property of this company and of its rights would not be a sufficient offset to the assumption of its liabilities. |
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] : California exhibits. |