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Show THE WESTERN WEB 23 Thus, the second question to be answered was: Where and how must Arizona measure the amount of water it used from the Gila? California said this water must be measured where it was actually beneficially consumed. Arizona said this water must be measured where the Gila emptied into the main Colorado. But the Gila didn't even flow into the Colorado as it did in prehistoric days. The Gila was all used up - beneficially consumed - in the Phoenix area. Three: Hoover Dam created Lake Mead, then the largest man-made body of water on earth. California had limited itself to taking 4,400,000 acre- feet of Three-A Water, plus not more than one-half of the excess or surplus, of which California claimed the Three-B Water was a part. California's contracts with the Federal Government, it will be recalled, for both Three-A and Three-B Waters, totaled 5,362,000 acre- feet. There were large evaporation losses in Lake Mead, as there were in any reservoir. Arizona said that California must deduct these losses from its apportioned water. California said that the quantity of Three-A Water to which California had limited itself was a net quantity of 4,400,000 acre-feet. This posed the question to be answered: Was the amount of Three-A Water to which California was entitled a net quantity, or was it subject to reduction by reason of evaporation and other losses in Lake Mead and elsewhere? In 1947, when S. 1175 was introduced in Congress, 25 years after the signing of the original compact, Ari- zona still refused to negotiate the main issues of the |
