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Show CHAPTER X 155 returned to the river. This process did not show the quantities delivered to the individual farm units. This approximated a water duty of 5.3 acre-feet per acre for the Valley Division and, since the records of crops produced as well as water used on the Reservation Division of the Yuma Project in California were similar to that on the Valley Division, a division of the water diverted from the Colorado River for each of the two segments of the Yuma Project was made, based on the percentage of the total irrigated acres. This analysis was deemed more reliable than the extrapolation of water figures above. For the five calendar years of 1925 through 1929, the analysis showed a water use ranging from 80,847 acre-feet to 155,071 acre-feet in the Reservation Division and 163,283 acre-feet to 214,595 acre-feet in the Valley Division. No comparable records were available for the North Gila Valley in Arizona or for the Imperial or Palo Verde Valleys in California, although North Gila Valley Irrigation District presented affidavits to the Arizona Interstate Stream Commission claiming that 3,428 acres were irrigated prior to June 25, 1929, and that 4,400 acres were irrigated in 1930. It became obvious to the United States representatives that it would not be easy to reconstruct the precise areas of land that were irrigated nor the precise quantities of water utilized on these precise parcels of land before June 25, 1929 (see memorandum to Files from the Associate Solicitor, Water and Power, dated October 13, 1965, and letter of October 26, 1965, from the California Attorney General to the Solicitor General). The difficulty of making precise PPR determinations prompted Interior's Solicitor to advise the Solicitor General of the Department of Justice on September 3, 1965, of the need for negotiation to resolve the problems involved. He stated there were "...many issues inherent in the present perfected right problem which cannot be resolved in legalistic, or readily definable terms... (but) will require negotiation and a certain amount of give and take on both sides...." F.3 Records of Imperial and Palo Verde Irrigation Districts Interior's representatives examined the water and financial records of Imperial Irrigation District on October 25, 1965, as well as the Imperial County Assessor records to see if irrigated acreages could be determined from the assessments. The records of the Palo Verde Irrigation District were also inspected. No records were available in either of the offices to show the precise parcels of land that were irrigated prior to 1929 nor the number of acre-feet of water delivered to such parcels. However, records were available at Imperial Irrigation District to show the total number of acre-feet of water diverted annually from the Colorado River, the number of acre-feet delivered to Mexico (through which the Alamo Canal passed before reentering the United States), the quantity returning to the United States, the total number of acre-feet delivered to farms in the district, the waste and unaccounted water, and the gross and net acres irrigated each year (see memorandum to Files from Assistant Regional Solicitor Nathanson, dated October 29, 1965). Since there is no return flow to the river, the diversion figure assumes more importance for Imperial Irrigation District. The records of Palo Verde Irrigation District showed the annual diversions from the Colorado River, the return flow to the river, and the total acreage irrigated in 1926 and 1932 but there were no records of the exact number of acres irrigated in each of the years between 1926 and 1932, although no substantial change appears to have occurred in that interval. FA Discussions with States Preliminary general discussions were had by representatives of Interior and Justice with the Arizona Interstate Stream Commission on July 28, 1965, and with the California parties on October 7, 1965. Both States asked whether the United States would file PPR claims for the irrigation districts in the Yuma area and were informed that while the United States would prepare data thereon the States would be responsible for presenting their respective claims. The California parties were of the opinion that it was not physically possible to ascertain the precise acres of land that were irrigated pre-1929 because of lack of data, but that, in their opinion, it was unnecessary to do so since the PPR claims were owned by the districts such as Imperial Irrigation |