WSP10089

• File Number: 8220.200.05.A
• Description: Hoover Dam/Lake Mead/Boulder Canyon Project
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 1/1/1950
• Title: The Story of Hoover Dam: Conservation Bulletin No. 9
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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More than a million acres of irrigable lands are located below Hoover
Dam. In 1947 more than 500.000 acres were under cultivation, of which
more than 400,000 acres lie in the Imperial Valley.
Without Hoover Dam further extension of the irrigated areas in these
valleys was out of the question. The natural flow of the river was already
overtaxed during the peak of the irrigation season. During a year such as
1934, when the Colorado River discharge was a little over 4,000,000 acre-
feet, about one-quarter of the expected normal, there was serious water short-
age. Crops valued at $10,000,000 were lost. Entire communities were
jeopardized.
In contrast, a decade later, 1944, the farmers of this area produced crops
valued at nearly $70,000,000. And 1944 was not an unusual year.
Today the supply of irrigation water stored by Hoover Dam is adequate
for all acreages presently irrigated. Lake Mead impounds more than 5
years' full irrigation supply for the farm lands now irrigated below the dam,
No longer do the farmers who live along the lower Colorado dread the
spectre of drought. For them there is no longer danger that the river will
run dry.
At present, 1942, the Coachella Branch of the All-American Canal is
nearing completion. With an over-all length of 102 miles, the Coachella
Canal will carry water from the All-American Canal, northward, into the
rich Coachella Valley. In this valley some 20,000 acres of land are pres-
ently irrigated by pumping from underground water resources. For the-
past several years pumping drains have constantly lowered the water table
to such an extent that the irrigated acres have been in constant jeopardy of
water shortages. Colorado River water delivered by the canal will bring
an end to present inadequacies, and assure the farmers of this rich valley
stable water supplies for crop production.
But these lands in California are not the only acreages which are benefited
by control of Colorado River water. On the Yuma project, in Arizona, are
55,415 acres which in 1947 received water from the Colorado River. These
acres of irrigated land are now being served securely as a result of river
control which is assured by Hoover Dam.

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A Vital Metropt,fitan llrater Sup pi"

A third important benefit derived from Hoover Dam's construction is the
provision of a metropolitan water supply vital to the economic growth and
welfare of southern California.
Southern California is a semiarid region. Average rainfall near the coast
is 15 inches annually, far less than is required for dependable agricultural
development, to say nothing of the needs of modern industrial cities. In
areas removed from the coast the average rainfall shades down to 3 inches.
The metropolitan Los Angeles area had recognized, for many years, pro-
vision of domestic water supply as one of its most pressing problems. In

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