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Show COLORADO RIVER LITIGATION 551 1929, supra. By its provisions the use of the water by California is restricted to 5,485,500 acre feet annually.5 The Secretary of the Interior, acting under authority of § 5 of the Boulder Canyon Project Act, has entered into contracts with Cali- fornia corporations for the storage in the Boulder Dam reservoir and the delivery, for use in California,6 of 5,362,000 acre-feet of water annually, for a stipulated compensation. The proposed bill of com- plaint charges that, notwithstanding the limitation upon the use of the water by California, certain California corporations, with the aid of the United States, propose to divert from the river and use con- sumptively in California an aggregate amount of 14,330,000 acre feet annually, including that which the Secretary of the Interior has contracted to deliver, or 8,444,500 acre feet in excess of the amount which California is permitted to take by the Boulder Canyon Project Act and her own statute, and sufficient to use all but about 1,000,000 acre feet of the unappropriated annual flow of the river.7 Arizona asserts that she is damaged by the impending appropri- ations of water by California by reason of the fact that future recla- mation of land in Arizona can be accomplished only by large scale projects, contemplating the irrigation of large areas to be operated and administered as a single unit, and, because of the great cost of diversion works and large expenditures required to establish such projects, it will be impossible to finance them "unless water for the irrigation of said land can be appropriated and unclouded, undisputed and incontestable rights to the permanent use thereof acquired at or prior to the time of constructing such works." It is conceded both by the bill of complaint and the returns that all the states in the Colorado Kiver basin except California, and California so far as material to the present case, apply the doctrine of appropriation to the waters of flowing streams in their respective territories. Under this doctrine, diversion and application of water to a beneficial use constitute an appropriation, and entitle the appro- priator to a continuing right to use the water, to the extent of the 5 The surplus water of the river in the lower basin, unapportioned by the Compact, is 2,171.000 acre-feet, one-half of which, or 1,085,500 acre-feet, California is entitled, under the Boulder Canyon Project Act, and her own statute, to add to the 4,400,000 acre-feet which they specifically allot to h«r, making a total allotment of 5,485,500 acre-feet annually. Acre-feet • Metropolitan Water District_______________________________________1, 100, 000 Imperial Valley and others________________________________________3, 850, 000 City of San Diego-______________________________________________ 112, 000 Palo Verde_______________________,_____________,__________________ 300, 000 Total_____________________________________________________5, 362, 000 7 By way of specification of this general statement it is alleged that such corporations have madie application to the Division of Water Resources, Department of Public Works of the State of California, for permits to divert and appropriate annually; from the river quantities of water aggregating more than 12,670,000 acre feet, and that the State of Cali- fornia will grant the permits so applied for. upon completion by such corporations of the necessary diversion works. In addition, it is alleged that the Secretary of the Interior, pursuant to § 1 of the Boulder Canyon Project Act, has entered into a contract with the Imperial Irrigation District, a Californiai corporation, in connection with the building of the Imperial Dam for the construction of a main canal known, as the "All American Canal," to connect the dam with the Imperial and Coachella Valleys, which provides for the delivery to the United States, at the Imperial Dam, of 1,400,000 acre feet per year, to be used for irrigation andi power. Approximately 200,000 acre feet of this amount will be used for the irrigation of lands in the United States Yuma Reclamation Project in Arizona. (The remainder will be used for irrigation of the Yuma Indian Reservation in California and for power. An additional 400,000 acre feet will be used for desilting the canal. The water to be used for desilting and power will be returned to the river ait a point where it cannot be recaptured for further use in the United States. |