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Show 536 INTERSTATE ADJUDICATIONS for the purpose of performing international obligations.10 Compare Missouri?. Holland, 252 U. S.416. Second.-The further claim is that the mere existence of the Act will invade quasi-sovereign rights of Arizona by preventing the State from exercising its right to prohibit or permit under its own laws the appropriation of unappropriated waters flowing within or on its borders. The opportunity and need for further appropriations are fully set forth in the bill. Arizona is arid and irrigation is necessary for cultivation of additional land. The future growth and welfare of the State are largely dependent upon such reclamation. It is alleged that there are within Arizona 2,000,000 acres not now irrigated which are susceptible of irrigation by further appropriations from the Colo- rado Eiver.11 To appropriate water means to take and divert a speci- fied quantity thereof and put it to beneficial use in accordance with the laws of the State where such water is found, and, by so doing, to ac- quire under such laws, a vested right to take and divert from the same source, and to use and consume the same quantity of water annually forever, subject only to the right of prior appropriations. Under the Jaw of Arizona, the perfected vested right to appropriate water flow- ing within the State cannot be acquired without the performance of physical acts through which the water is and will in fact be diverted to beneficial use. Topographical conditions make it necessary that land in the State be irrigated in large projects. The Colorado River flows, both on the boundary between Arizona and Nevada, and in Arizona alone, through an almost continuous series of deep canyons, the walls of which rise in Arizona to a height varying from a few hundred to more than 5,000 feet. The cost of installing the dams, reservoirs, canals, and distribution works required to effect any diver- sion, will be very heavy; and financing on a large scale is indispensable. Such financing will be impossible unless it clearly appears that, at or prior to the time of constructing such works, vested rights to the permanent use of the water will be acquired. The alleged interference with the right of the State to control addi- tional appropriations is based upon the following facts. The average annual flow of the Colorado River system, including the tributaries, is 18,000,000 acre-feet.12 Only 9,000,00 acre-feet have been appro- priated by Arizona and the defendant States. Of this 3,500,000 acre- feet have been appropriated in Arizona under its laws, and the remain- ing 5,500,000 acre-feet by the other States. The 9,000,000 acre-feet 10 The Colorado River and its tributaries have frequently been the subject of treaties between the United States and Mexico. See Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848, Art. VII, in Malloy, United States Treaties, vol. i, pp. 1107-1111; Gadsden Treaty, December 30, 1853, Art. IV., id., pp. 1121, 1123 ; Boundary Convention of March 1, 1889, Arts. I, V, id., pp. 1167-92. Compare the 1912 proposals reported in Hearings Before the House Committee on the Irrigation of Arid Lands, 66th Cong., 1st Sess., July 9-14, 1919, Append., pp. 323-26. As to the Rio Grande, see Convention of May 21, 1906. Treaty Series No. 455 ; 21 Op. Atty. Gen. 274, 282, 518; Sen. Doc. No. 154, 57th Cong., 2d Sess., February 14, 1903. For the international aspects of the proposed Colorado River Development, see Hearings Before the House Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands, 66th Cong., 1st Sess., July 9-14, 1919, Append., pp. 323-48; Colorado River Compact, H.R. Doc. 605, 67th Cong., 4th Sess., March 2, 1923, pp. 5-6 ; Report of the Ail-American Canal Board, July 22, 1919, pp. 14-15 ; Report of International Water Commission, supra, Note 8, pp. 17-23, 11 Of the total length of 1,293 miles of the Colorado River, 688 miles are within or on the boundaries of Arizona. After leaving Utah, the main river flows for 292 miles wholly in Arizona. Then, the middle of the channel forms the boundary between Arizona and Nevada for 145 miles; and for 235 miles, the boundary between Arizona and California. Tributaries of the river flow within Arizona for a combined length of 836 miles, and most of these enter the main stream below Black Canyon. 12 An acre-foot is the quantity of water required to cover an acre to a depth of one foot- 43,560 cubic feet. See Wyoming v. Colorado, 259 U.S. 419, 458. |
