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Show 288 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER cities and districts on the coastal plain of which the largest are Los Angeles and San Diego; The Palo Verde Irrigation District, an area about 212 miles below Hoover Dam, which has the oldest rights on the river and has been diverting water there since about 1877; The Ail-American Canal, which diverts water at Imperial Dam, 303 miles below Hoover Dam and twenty-two miles above the Mexican border, and transports it into the Imperial Irrigation District and Coachella Valley County Water District. This dam and canal were built by the United States, along with Hoover Dam, as part of the Boulder Canyon Project, but these districts were required to underwrite the cost in advance. Imperial Valley's appropriations date back to 1891. California Water Claims The quantity of Colorado River water which California claims, for which she holds contracts with the United States, and which the Colorado River Aqueduct, the All-American Canal and the Palo Verde works have been built to use, is 5,362,000 acre-feet per year. California is not seeking more water for new projects, but to defend the water supply of old projects. More than six million people live within the areas served by the Colorado River in California. The assessed valuation exceeds eight billion dollars. The economy of Southern Cali- fornia is dependent on the permanent availability of these waters. The Metropolitan Water District will outgrow its present Colorado River supply, which is 1,212,000 acre-feet per year, in about twenty-five years on present forecasts, and must look to the Feather River or elsewhere for additional water. The Present Challenge California's rights in the Colorado River System are now being seriously challenged from two directions, and in two arenas. The first is in the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Arizona v. California, now pending. In this suit, Arizona seeks to establish interpretations of the Boulder Canyon Project Act and the Colorado River Compact, |