OCR Text |
Show 154 UPDATING THE HOOVER DAM DOCUMENTS matters of adjustment. For example, Imperial Dam was the diversion point for reclamation projects in the Yuma area, replacing Laguna Dam. Nevertheless, the aforementioned document entitled "July 1, 1965, Data," attempted to provide both answers from an analysis which was made of water right applications (both filed and cancelled); finance ledgers; Annual Yuma Projects Histories; U.S. Geological Survey Water Supply Papers; exhibits in Arizona v. California; and miscellaneous Reclamation records. Since the largest number of acres irrigated were recorded in the 5-year period pre-June 25, 1929, the analysis concentrated in that period in order that PPR claims would be fully protected. F.2.1 Yuma Auxiliary Project (Unit B), Arizona This was the smallest and earliest reclamation project to check. It was possible to deduce from the above records for the Yuma Auxiliary Project, with a high degree of accuracy, the number of acres under water right applications which had paid minimum water charges and for excess water and were irrigated in each calendar year for the period 1923 to 1929, and the water duty in acre-feet per acre delivered to farms. The Yuma Auxiliary Project, the smallest reclamation project, had the best acreage and water records. The records indicated, following a double cross-check process, that 1,165 acres under water right applications plus an additional 165 acres immediately adjacent to the boundaries of Unit B, or a total of 1,330 acres, were actually irrigated in calendar year 1929 on the Yuma Auxiliary Project. While there were no records of the quantities of water applied to the individual farm units, there were records showing that the largest number of acre-feet of water pumped for the whole of Unit B at the B-Lift Pumping Plant, which provided Unit B's water out of the Valley Division's East Main Canal, was 6,777 acre-feet in calendar year 1929, of which 4,187 acre-feet were delivered to the total number of farm units. F.2.2. Reservation Division - Bard Unit and Valley Division -Yuma Project A similar analysis was made for the Yuma Project which consists of the Valley Division in Arizona and the Reservation Division in California. The Reservation Division, in turn, is comprised of an Indian Unit and a non-Indian or Bard Unit. Since the Indian Unit of the Reservation Division had rights decreed to it in Article II(D)(3) of the Decree in Arizona v. California, it was necessary both to extrapolate the figures for the Bard, or non-Indian Unit, from those for the Reservation Division as a whole, and to make judgment decisions on the number of acres actually irrigated. Water records of diversions for the Yuma Project were not broken down between the Valley and the Reservation Divisions in Arizona and California, respectively. (It must be recalled that it was not anticipated in the pre-June 25, 1929, era, in which these records were maintained, that a definition in 1964 would require reconstructing that type of record.) Nevertheless, an analysis was made by deducting from the diversions for both divisions of the Yuma Project; i.e., the Reservation Division in California and the Valley Division in Arizona, the quantities of water leaving the Reservation Division via the California Wasteway and returning to the river, and the quantities of water leaving the Reservation Division and delivered to the Colorado River Siphon for use in the Valley Division and Yuma Auxiliary Project in Arizona. This process provided the quantities of water used on the Reservation Division. The Bard Unit water figures were computed by subtracting therefrom the already decreed rights for the Indian Unit. This indicated that on the Bard Unit (non-Indian), the largest number of acres irrigated pre-June 25, 1929, were 6,047 acres under water right application in calendar year 1924; but on a noncoincidental or .cumulative basis; i.e., the acreage irrigated at any time and during any year prior to June 25, 1929, although without proof of its continued irrigation, the largest acreage was 6,215 acres. On the Valley Division these figures were 43,562 and 46,563 acres respectively. The same process was used in the July 1, 1965, data for the lands in the Valley Division of the Yuma Project in Arizona. It was possible to compute the total quantities of water delivered to the Valley Division as a whole during each of the calendar years under review by using the quantities of water delivered through the Colorado River Siphon and deducting the quantities pumped to Unit B and the quantities |