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ARIZONA
<br />lands were homesteaded. Construction of Roosevelt Dam reduced water
<br />flows in the Gila, speeding the development of groundwater pumping in
<br />the Gila Valley. Congress authorized the Gila Project in 1937, but World
<br />War II reduced work on the project. It was reauthorized in 1947.
<br />Colorado River water was delivered for the first time on May 1, 1952.
<br />In addition to the large projects, farmers, ranchers, miners and
<br />municipalities sank wells to pump groundwater to augment the surface
<br />water supplies. But groundwater was expensive to pump and continued
<br />pumping has sparked many debates on public policy. With limited surface
<br />water supplies, groundwater accounts for more than half of Arizona's total
<br />water resources.
<br />Arizonans began thinking about diverting the Colorado River
<br />inland late in the 19th century. In April 1886, the talk led a Phoenix
<br />newspaper editor to write, "The proposition to divert the waters of the
<br />Colorado River so as to bring the great desert under cultivation is
<br />chimerical ... the great expense attending the consummation of such a
<br />project - experiment, we should say - is entirely in excess of any benefits
<br />that may safely be expected."
<br />Thirty-three years later, a man who could have read those words
<br />as a boy introduced a measure in the U.S. House of Representatives that
<br />created the Grand Canyon National Park and allowed the federal
<br />government to build and operate reclamation projects therein. Arizona
<br />Representative Carl Hayden's bill also made it possible for reclamation
<br />projects to be repaid with proceeds from the sale of hydroelectricity
<br />generated at Bureau of Reclamation dams.
<br />adjudicated or a binding, mutual agreement as to the use of the water is
<br />reached by the states of the Lower Colorado River Basin."
<br />Because past efforts to reach agreement had failed, Arizona
<br />petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in 1952 for permission to file an
<br />interstate lawsuit against California. In the petition, Arizona said it "needs
<br />to take and consume 3.8 million acre-feet of Colorado River system water
<br />annually to sustain its economy. It is ready for construction projects that
<br />will utilize such water. The successful financing, construction and
<br />operation of these projects are threatened by the claim of the defendants
<br />that Arizona has no right to such water."
<br />Permission for the litigation was granted, and trial in Arizona vs.
<br />California before a special master, judge Simon Rifkind, began in 1956.
<br />Arizona's case, based on sustaining its economy, appeared weak. Some of
<br />Arizona's attorneys and others sensed a need to change direction, which
<br />would be difficult to do in midtrial. Fate stepped in to help them; Rifkind
<br />suffered a nonfatal heart attack on February 15, 1957, and the case was
<br />recessed until May. During the break, Phoenix Attorney Mark Wilmer was
<br />appointed special counsel and he amended Arizona's position. The state
<br />now would argue that its rights were based upon ... "the law of the river."
<br />The U.S. Supreme Court on June 3, 1963, affirmed Arizona's
<br />annual right to 2.8 million acre-feet of water (the court decree was issued
<br />March 9, 1964)• The 2.8 million acre-feet did not include another million
<br />acre-feet per year Arizona used from the Gila River system. By a separate
<br />act, California was required to pass a law forever limiting itself to 4.4
<br />million acre-feet.
<br />Because of Southern California's booming population, growing
<br />industry and expanding farm production, that state wanted immediate
<br />construction of a dam to store water and to develop electricity. The other
<br />Colorado River states were progressing more slowly and did not share the
<br />urgency expressed by California business, civic, agricultural and political
<br />leaders. These states worried that California, under the Doctrine of Prior
<br />Appropriation of water management practiced in the West, would leave
<br />little of the Colorado River to them.
<br />At the suggestion of Utah's governor, chief executives of the
<br />seven states met and formed the League of the Southwest to deal with the
<br />situation. Eventually, Congress approved a law allowing the states to
<br />negotiate a division of the river's water. The goal was to assure that water
<br />would be available to the states in the future as they developed and needed
<br />it. Unable to reach agreement about how the water should be shared, the
<br />states split into upper and lower basins, with the states in each to work out
<br />a division of the water allotted to their basin. Upper basin states reached
<br />agreement on dividing their water in July 1948.
<br />Arizona residents banded together to persuade Congress to
<br />authorize the Bureau of Reclamation to build the state's most ambitious
<br />water supply project to date: the Central Arizona Project (CAP), a 336-
<br />mile aqueduct with water storage and flood control dams to carry Colorado
<br />River water from Lake Havasu to Phoenix, Tucson and farms along the
<br />way. Senators Carl Hayden and Ernest McFarland first introduced
<br />legislation to authorize the CAP in 1947. Senator McFarland testified
<br />before Congress that "if central Arizona is unable to supplement the
<br />present supply of water by 1.2 million acre-feet from the Colorado, our
<br />farmers will have to move off the land and ground once fertile and
<br />productive will go back to desert waste." That lament was echoed by
<br />others who believed that without the CAP, central Arizona would become
<br />a wasteland.
<br />Arizona's efforts to win immediate congressional approval for the
<br />bureau to construct the CAP were thwarted by California. On April 18,
<br />1951, at the behest of California's representatives, the U.S. House
<br />Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation approved a motion that
<br />consideration of legislation to authorize the CAP "be postponed until such
<br />time as the use of the water in the Lower Colorado River Basin is either
<br />AUTHORIZED CONSTRUCTION.
<br />Bills to construct the CAP were introduced in both houses of
<br />Congress on June 4, 1963. Arizona got California's cooperation by
<br />agreeing that the CAP's water diversions "shall be so limited as to assure
<br />the availability of water ... in the state of California."
<br />To satisfy an outcry against construction of hydroelectric dams in
<br />the Grand Canyon to provide power to operate and to repay CAP costs, a
<br />coal-fired generating station was planned near Page, Arizona. President
<br />Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act authorizing the CAP on September 30,
<br />1968. By then, CAP's planners knew the long-term purpose of bringing
<br />Colorado River water to southern Arizona was to provide water for
<br />Arizona's growing population, not for raising crops. But today, CAP still
<br />provides a significant amount to agricultural users. CAP's operators, the
<br />Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD), estimate that
<br />Arizona's full entitlement to Colorado River water will be used prior to the
<br />year 2036, after the CAP is using its full supply.
<br />Compiled and written by Jim McIntyre and Earl Zarbin, Central Arizona Project,
<br />and Karen Smith, Salt River Project.
<br />THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE DESERT, AS WITNESSED BY SUPPORTERS OF THE
<br />CENTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT; IN 1968 PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON'S SIGNATURE
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