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Show 550 INTERSTATE ADJUDICATIONS and the Mexican Republic.2 After deducting all existing appropria- tions there remains in the river subject to future appropriation a net average annual flow of at least 9,720,000 acre feet.3 About 2,027,000 acres of land are under irrigation by water diverted from the Colorado River and its tributaries other than the Gila, of which 72,120 acres are in Arizona.4 There are more than 2,000,000 acres of land in Arizona that are not irrigated, but are susceptible of economic irrigation from the unappropriated water of the Colorado River and its tributaries other than the Gila, and which cannot be irrigated from any other source. There are 5,000,000 additional acres of land in Arizona "potentially susceptible of economic irrigation" from the waters of the river. There are pending projects to irrigate more than 1,000,000 acres of this unirrigated but irrigable land of which more than 100,000 acres are owned by the State of Arizona. The amount of water required for such irrigation is in excess of 4,000,000 acre feet annually. By the Colorado River Compact, see Arizona v. California, supray entered into by the defendant states and approved by Congress, but to which Arizona is not a party, the undepleted flow of water of the Colorado River is apportioned between the upper basin and the lower basin of the river valley, the point of division Toeing Lees Ferry, 23 miles below the southern boundary of Utah. To each basin there is apportioned 7,500,000 acre feet per annum and the lower basin has the additional right to increase its "beneficial consumptive usen of the water by 1,000,000 feet per annum. By the Boulder Canyon Project Act, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized, subject to the terms of the Colorado River Compact, to construct, operate and maintain a dam and incidental works at the present site of Boulder Dam, with an appurtenant hydro-electric plant, and to use and dispose of the water stored above the dam for irrigation and for the development of power. The Act also provided that no authority should be exercised under it until six of the states in the Colorado River basin, including California, should ratify the Compact, and unless the State of California, by act of its Legislature, should agree with the United States, for the benefit of all the states in the river basin, that the aggregate annual use of water from the river by the State of California should not exceed 4,400,000 acre-feet annually, plus one-half of any excess of surplus waters unapportioned by the Compact. The Compact was duly ratified by the six defendant states, and the limitation upon the use of the water by California, was duly enacted into law by the California Legislature by Act of March 4, 2 Of this amount approximately 2,500,000 acre feet are diverted annually above Lees Ferry, and are used and consumed in Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming, and 3,600,000 acre feet are diverted annually below Lees Feriry from the river andi its tributaries other than the Gila. The average annual diversions taking place below the southern boundary of Utah, stated in acre feet are as follows: Arizona, 585,000; California, 2,475.000 ; Nevada, 40,000 ; Mexican Republic, 500,000. 3 At Leesi Perry 10,500,000 acre feet, at Boulder Dam 11,100,000 acre feet, at Imperial Dam 9,720,000 acre feet. Allowing for estimated increase in use of the water now ap- propriated for irrigation of land above Boulder Dam and for diversions by projects now under construction in Colorado, it is estimated that the flow of the Colorado River into and out of the Boulder Dam, will in 1938, average 15,069,000 acre feet per year. 4 The acreage under irrigation by water diverted from the Colorado River and its tributaries, other than the Gila, is distributed among the Colorado River basin states as follows: Arizona 72,120: California 464,653; Colorado 856,413; New Mexico 45,937: Nevada 12,308; Utah 347,452; Wyoming 228,699. Approximately 525,000 acres of land in the Gila River basin are irrigated from the waters of that river and its tributaries, -of which 520,000 acres are located in Arizona. |
