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WSP12165
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Last modified
1/26/2010 3:20:05 PM
Creation date
10/12/2006 5:25:19 AM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
Water Supply Protection
File Number
8210.470
Description
Pacific Southwest Interagency Committee
State
CO
Basin
Colorado Mainstem
Water Division
5
Date
8/1/1963
Author
PSIAC
Title
Pacific Southwest Water Plan - Report - August 1963
Water Supply Pro - Doc Type
Report/Study
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<br />00'255Cl <br /> <br />The first irrigators on the Colorado River were Indians. To <br />provide for the settlement of these tribes, Congress in 1865 estab- <br />lished the Colorado River Indian Reservation which is divided by the <br />river and lies partly in California, but mostly in Arizona. The <br />Congress also made the first appropriation for irrigation develop- <br />ment in 1867 by authorizing funds for the construction of an irriga. <br />tion canal. Four additional Indian Reservations, smaller in size, <br />have been established along the Colorado River--the Fort Mohave, <br />Yuma, Chemehuevi, and Cocopah. <br /> <br />Probably the first irrigation diversions from the river by <br />white settlers were made in the Palo Verde Valley during the 1870's, <br />with other diversions following at Yuma and Imperial Valley, all <br />prior to 1900. <br /> <br />Many problems beset these early irrigators. Undulating flows <br />at high stages provided water for irrigation but were heavily filled <br />with sediment. As the flows receded each summer they fell below <br />the diversion works, and the pumps which were used to reach low <br />flows were subject to inundation from summer storms. The Imperial <br />Valley canal system, which flowed through Mexico, was successively <br />threatened during the 1905-1909 period when the river deserted its <br />course to the Gulf of California following floods on the watershed, <br />and created the present Salton Sea. In 1911 the river was finally <br />returned to its course when a series of levees were built to contain <br />the river. <br /> <br />The annual loss and destruction caused by the uncontrolled <br />Colorado River created pressures for some type of control to be <br />placed on its flows. This led to the Kinkaid Act of 1920 which <br />directed the Secretary of the Interior to study the problems of <br />the Colorado River. To allay the fears of the Upper Colorado River <br />Basin States that they would lose their water rights on the river, <br />the Congress in 1921 passed an act which authorized the affected <br />Colorado River Basin States to enter into a compact dividing the <br />waters of the River. This action resulted in the Colorado River <br />Compact of 1922. The Compact divided the water of the Colorado <br />River between the Upper and Lower Basins with the division point <br />established at Lee Ferry in northern Arizona. <br /> <br />The Compact, however, did not attempt to divide the waters <br />apportioned to each Basin between the various States. Between <br />1922 and 1928 six of the seven Basin States approved the Compact <br />by legislative enactment. Arizona, however, refused to ratify the <br />Compact because of its belief that California, throug~ existing and <br />proposed diversion facilities, could effectively put to use all <br />water available to the Lower Basin before Arizona could construct <br />facilities for uses of its own. A number of bills were introduced <br />in Congress seeking approval of the Compact. Congress, however, <br /> <br />11-2 <br />
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