WSP10867 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

.' "Mr. lAWSON. Yes. "Senator DOWNEY. Under the water rights and the uses that existed in both countries prior to 1927, when we passed the Boulder Dam Project Act, was it possible for Mexico to utilize more than 600,000 second-feet of the waters of the Colorado River? "Mr. lAW SON. Niexico has an irrigable area of 800,000 acres. Its development has been somewhat retarded because of economic matters, not physical matters. They had before the Boulder Dam was constructed used about 750,000 acre-feel of water; since the con- struction of Boulder Dar,1, they have increased that use until we find in the last 2 or 3 years a use of pretty close to 1,800,000 acre- feet. "Senator DOWNEY. Then, I will ask the question this way, if I may. Mr. Chairman: That use of 1,800,000 acre-feet is made possible only by the utilization of the waters in Boulder Reservoir, is it not? "Mr. lAW SON . That is correct; by the facilities which have been created in the United States. "Senator DO\NNEY. That is all." Mr. Lawson preseMed a statement on water supply of the Colorado River which included charts and graphs and which presented figures that were used by the negoti- ators of the treaty starting on pa0e 74: "V'lATER SUPPLY "The water supply of the Colorado River is derived largely from the snow that accumula'les in the mountains of the upper basin during the-winter-monthsullll whtctrmetrs-n:>cause tne usual spnng fIOOcls. Records of the flow a t Lee Ferry show that an average of about 12, 500,000 acre-feet of water has i)assed that point annually since 1922. The reconstructed flow, or the virgin flow, since 1897, has been estimated as about 16,200,000 acre-feet at this point. Additional inflow above Boulder Dam would li1crease this amount to about 17,400,000 acre-feet as the virgin inflow into Lake Mead." He then presented a charL depicting estimates of the virgin flow of ',he Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona covering various periods and denved from various reports. The figures were: -8-