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<br />0020G3 <br /> <br />66 <br /> <br />ASSEMBLY INTERIM COMMITTEE ON WATER <br /> <br />The total length of the backbone canal system from the Colorado <br />River to Tucson would extend approximately 341 miles, compared <br />with 242 miles for the aqueduct from Lake Havasu to Lake Mathews in <br />Riverside County, operated by the Metropolitan Water District of <br />Southern California. <br />The existing Salt River project storage system would be integrated <br />with the operation of the Central Arizona Project Canal System. <br />Additional dams would be required by the project. Maxwell Dam <br />(1,130,000 acre-feet) on the Salt IUver would be utilized to store water <br />in excess of that needed at Granite Reef. Buttes Dam (36G,OOO acre- <br />feet) located on the Gila River about 14 miles upstream from Florence, <br />Arizona; Charleston Dam (238,000 acre-feet) on the San Pedro River, <br />southeast of Tueson, and Hooker Dam (98,000 acre-feet) on the main <br />stem of the Gila River in Western New Mexico, would all be required <br />to eonserve and regulate loeal water supply. <br />It has been pointed out that a great deal of urban development has <br />oceurred in Arizona in the last deeade, and, particularly since the 1947 <br />report on the Central Arizona Projeet. Nevertheless, the basic purpose <br />of the Central Arizona Projeet is to provide agrieultural water supplies. <br />As was indieated to the U.S. Senate Committee on Interior and Insular <br />Affairs by Commissioner Dominy: <br />It is contemplated that approximately two-thirds of the Colorado <br />River water diverted would be supplied for existing irrigation <br />purposes and that about one-third would be supplied for munieipal <br />and industrial purposes under project eonditions. This is a ehange <br />in water use from that shown in the 1947 report as, in that report, <br />only about 1 pereent of the projeet water was assigned for mu- <br />nieipal and industrial use. <br />The Central Arizona Projeet Plan docs not provide for bringing <br />in any new lands under cultivation. All additional water would be <br />used to supplement the demand of presently developed areas." <br />In the area served by the Central Arizona Projeet the Bureau of <br />Reclamation estimates a population of 1,125,000. It is estimated that <br />there are about 1,202,000 aeres of land developed for irrigation in the <br />area, of which an average of about 880,000 acres per year are now <br />irrigated. This includes 75,000 acres of irrigated land on Indian res- <br />ervations. <br />Total estimated cost of the Central Arizona Project will be $1,101,- <br />331,000. <br />According to the Department of Interior's supplemental rcport on <br />the project: <br />Although construction of the Central Arizona Project would <br />generate many benefits to the States of Arizona and New Mexico, <br />the Lower Colorado River Basin, and the nation as a whole, the <br />principal objective of the project is the stabilization and preven- <br />tion of retrenchment of the economy of the project area. Even <br />with an imported snpply of water, some presently irrigated lands <br />will eventually have to be abandoned because of water shortages, <br />and urban developments resulting from the population increase <br />in the area will encroach on other irrigated lands' <br /> <br />TI Hearings on S. 1658, op. cit., at 44. <br />4. United States Department of Interior, 81tpplemental Report Central Arizona Proj- <br />eot" at 56. .Tune 1963. <br />