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CALIFORNIA At the year 1918, another notation: "Reclamation proposes control of the Colorado by a dam of unprecedented height in Boulder Canyon on the Arizona/Nevada border." This was but the first of a string of actions over the next 10 years that would lead to authorization of such a project. Two Californians took lead roles: U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson and Congressman Phil Swing. In 1919, largely as a result of the efforts of Swing, when he had been the attorney for IID, and Mark Rose, a crusty farmer, a study board recommended construction of an all-American canal and of large storage dams on the Colorado. GYM i r: Ny r` I{ Anxiety swept throughout the basin states. The first step, insisted those concerned, was for all to agree upon their respective water rights. A deadlock in doing so stretched into 1922 when then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, representing the federal government, made the proposal that cleared the way for the agreement. Though many felt it was flawed, though many felt it was incomplete, the Colorado River Compact was signed in November of that year. It divided the river into upper and lower basins and allocated the use of 7.5 million acre-feet of river water annually to each; a separate section allocated an additional 1 million acre-feet to the lower basin. Events earlier in 1922 may have provided the impetus. A report recommending construction of an all-American canal and a high dam at or near Boulder Canyon had been submitted to the U.S. Senate; Imperial Valley's new congressman, Phil Swing, had introduced to the House of Representatives a bill to construct a dam at Black Canyon near Boulder Canyon on the Colorado River. These actions triggered a near-seven-year marathon. Three times Swing and Johnson introduced authorizing legislation; three times they were turned back. In 1924, William Mulholland, a man of considerable reputation who had brought Owens Valley water to the city of Los Angeles, entered the fight. With the arrival of that water, the population soared and, by the mid-1920s, approached the 1 million mark, with surrounding cities growing as well. In 1923, in search of a new water supply, Mulholland and a small group of men, packing their bedrolls, had headed east across the desert to make the first of many surveys to find the best route to bring Colorado River water to the burgeoning city and its neighbors. Mulholland told the House Irrigation Committee, "I am here in the interest of a domestic water supply for the city of Los Angeles." Boulder (later renamed Hoover) Dam, an all-American canal and now an aqueduct from the Colorado, had become Southern California's great hope for the future. People from numerous towns on their way to becoming cities had joined the agricultural community and rallied behind Johnson and Swing with an enthusiasm that was hard to beat. A 1923 entry on the timeline reveals the California Legislature's approval of the formation of the Palo Verde Irrigation District to provide water to land directly adjoining the Colorado and surrounding the town of Blythe. Thomas Blythe, a San Francisco investor, had made the first filing on Colorado River water in California in 1877 when he recorded a request for 190,000 miners inches for "agricultural, mining, manufacturing, domestic and commercial purposes." His activities launched a chain of development which evolved into a district that today covers about 121,000 acres. A fourth attempt by Swing and Johnson to seek approval for what was known as the Boulder Canyon Project Act was successful in 1928, notwithstanding threats over the years of a six-state compact, what seemed like interminable debate in the U.S. Senate, an Arizona filibuster during which a senator called Johnson a "bifurcated, peripatetic volcano in perpetual eruption, belching fire and smoke...", withdrawal by Utah of its compact approval only later to renew it, more filibusters, on and on. The act approved the Colorado River Compact and authorized the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to construct a dam at Black Canyon or Boulder Canyon and what would officially become known as the All- American Canal and its Coachella branch. It also spelled out a number of provisions and purposes, not all of which were to everyone's liking, but, overall, Southern Californians celebrated. About the same time, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) was incorporated to build and operate the aqueduct that would bring Colorado River water to 13 Southern California cities, a feat that would be accomplished without the use of one federal dollar and with no participation of the Bureau of Reclamation. MWD today is an organization that serves some 140 cities and towns that are home to more than 16 million people. In the early days of the 1920s, a number of cities, including Los Angeles, banded together to set the wheels in motion to form a special district. A bill was introduced in the state Senate in January of 1925 and three months later was passed by a vote of 25 to 9. One week later, however, the lower house gave it a thumbs down by a vote of 43 to 32. At the next election, many of those who voted against this bill were defeated. The next time around, in January 1927, the Senate gave it a unanimous 27 to 0 endorsement and the Assembly had only two dissenting votes to offset its 63 ayes. Tracing the timeline, your finger passes quickly by events of the 1930s. Though it was a period of nonstop action that profoundly impacted California, most activity pertained to carrying out what already was authorized. Urban Southern California voters provided the funds to build the ? 1, Colorado River Aqueduct. The federal Bureau of ?. , ,. Reclamation built three dams on the SOUTHERN PACIFIC'S ROUTE FROM CALIFORNIA TO river - Hoover ARIZONA HAD TO BE RELOCATED WHEN THE COLORADO forming Lake Mead, SWEPT THROUGH A BREACH IN A BANK IN 1905, Parker (for which CREATING THE SALTON SEA. MWD provided funding) forming Lake Havasu where MWD's aqueduct would have its intake, and Imperial where the All-American Canal would head out. The aqueduct and canal were built, but it was the 1940s before work started on the Coachella branch of the All-American. The uneasy tension that had existed between California and Arizona, since President Calvin Coolidge signed the Boulder Canyon Project Act into law in 1928, turned into a rough-and-tumble, no-holds- barred tug of war over use of the river's waters in the mid-'40s. Neither side relaxed its grip until the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, tipped the bucket in Arizona's direction in 1963. 12 WILLIAM MULHOLLAND SIN VEST) AND 1923 SURVEY PARTY SCOUTED A ROUTE FOR AN AQUEDUCT TO CARRY WATER TO COASTAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.