BOARD02551

• Board Meeting Date: 8/11/1965
• Description: Minutes and Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

I

The bill provides that when importations
occur to the extent of 2.5 million acre-feet
annually, the California priority is no longer
in effect. In other ""ords, the agreement is
then terminated between California and Arizona.
This puts the burden on Arizona to try to
secure importations because of its guarantee
made to California.

Secondly, another factor that we con-
sidered was the fact that the Central Arizona
Project is nothing but a stopgap as far as
Lower Basin projects are concerned. It does
not do the job for Arizona. There will still
be a substantial overdraft of water supplies
in that state. This project does nothing
but delay the inevitable depletion of its
""ater. Arizona must have far more water
than this. Such water can only come from
importations.

still another factor that we have con-
sidered is that California cannot get by with
4.4 million. It is today using over 5 million
acre-feet of mainstream water. So if Cali-
fornia continues its present use, it must
have imports of water also.

I

The necessity of these imports to the
Lower Basin will occur, in our opinion, before
the necessity will occur in the Upper Basin.
He think it ...lill occur at a mu.ch earlier date.
In the light of these factors we ourselves
will be short of water somewhere in the late
1990's, or shortly thereafter. lYe ourselves
must have additional imports of water. The
question is, hmol do ...,e time this? lYe think
no..... is the time to pull it together \...hen \...e
all recognize that we need imports. But we
say that the Lower Basin must have them first.
The burden never leaves them to fight for
these imports.

The question then is the procedure that
we should follow in securing these imports.
There are three possibilities that we