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..r < 001793 . . THE QUANTITIES OF WATER ^,1T\ mtm PQ/"I.T1u'm<l T~nT/"Inmn n...'....... ......UooI ....."""'_..........., .....~.. ...._.__ The two major contestants are the states o~ Arizona and California. Arizona started the suit in 1952 against Cali- fornia and seven California public agenoies1l after a committee of the House of Representatives had refused to consider legisla- tion to authorize the proposed Central Arizona Project. which Arizona had sought in the Eighty-first and Eighty-seoond Con- gresses. until the issue of water rights could be settled.gj The Central Arizona Project was a billion dollar pro- posal to divert 1.200.000 acre-feet of water per year from the main stream of the Colorado River. pump it nearly 1.000 feet. and carry it more than 200 miles through an aqueduot to the Phoenix area of Arizona. There it would be used as a supple- mental source of water for farms now irrigated from a ground water supply overdrawn as a result of the agricultural expansion 11 Three of the California defendant agencies are irriga- tion districts: Palo Verde Irrigation District. Imperial Irri- gation District. and Coachella Valley County Water District. Defendant The Metropolitan Water Distriot of Southern California serves the other three defendants: the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego. and the county of San Diego. Metropolitan also serves more than 70 other municipalities in the southern Cali- fornia coastal plain not sued by Arizona. but whose rights would nonetheless be affected. All the California defendants have united in a common defense headed initially by Attorney General Edmund G, Brown. and since January 1959. by Attorney General Stanley Mosk. Chief Counsel is Northcutt Ely. Special Assistant Attorney General. of the Washington. D.C.. and California bars. gj Arizona Bill of Complaint. par. XX. pp. 22-23. In both Congresses. the Senate passed the authorizing legislation. 5.