| OCR Text |
Show 24 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER controversy, refused to submit them to arbitration, and steadfastly held to its position that only on its own terms could there be peace on the Colorado. Those terms in- cluded taking for its own use the river water that was the basis of the old controversy, and using it in a new multi-billion dollar irrigation project. The facts of the long-standing Arizona-California conflict were clear and irrefutable: 1-The Colorado River Compact, signed in 1922, was approved by all the States of the basin, except Arizona. Arizona remained out of the Compact. 2 - By that action, Arizona blocked development and peace on the Colorado River, just as those goals were in sight. 3 - In 1923, the Compact could not become opera- tive without ratification by all seven basin states and approval by the Congress. But the six states which had ratified were not to be thwarted by one uncoopera- tive state, and machinery was set in motion to have the Compact given life as a six-state agreement. It took six years to accomplish this, with Arizona a disruptive force throughout the long negotiations. At last, Con- gress, in 1928, after Arizona had blocked action through four sessions, passed the Boulder Canyon Project Act, which authorized construction of the largest dam in the world, provided, however, that six of the basin states ratified the Compact and that California enacted a limitation act. 4 - The states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Ne- vada, New Mexico and California quickly ratified the Compact, and California enacted the required limi- tation act, which pertained to the amount of water California would use. |
