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<br />.' <br /> <br />0017 97 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />In addition, there are water rights on the lower basin <br />tributaries, totaling about 2,000,000 acre-feet per annum. The <br />major lower basin tributary is the Gila River system, with its <br />major tributaries the Salt and the Verde. The Gila system rises <br />in New Mexico, crosses southern Arizona, where it supplieS the <br />principal agricultural area in that state, and except for unusual <br />floods is entirely consumed before reaching the main stream at <br />Yuma.1I Its safe annual yield, according to California findings, <br />is l,750,OOO acre-feet per annum. There are other tributaries <br />in the lower basin, both above and below Hoover Dam, from which <br /> <br />quantities of about 200,000 acre-feet per annum are consumed. <br /> <br /> <br />These tributaries, in addition to partially offsetting main stream <br /> <br /> <br />channel losses, contribute more than 1,000,000 acre-feet to the <br /> <br /> <br />main stream supply. <br /> <br />None of the states or the United States has asked the <br /> <br />Court to curtail uses by any existing project, either on the main <br /> <br /> <br />stream or tributaries, except projects in California. If Arizona <br /> <br /> <br />prevails, California projects would be curtailed to 4,400,000 <br /> <br /> <br />acre-feet, without any recognition of interstate priority, and to <br /> <br />perhaps 3,000,000 acre-feet if the contentions of the United <br /> <br />11 The overdraft on the Arizona ground water basins fed by <br />the Gila, estimated to have a capacity of 100,000,000 acre-feet <br />or more, enables a total present use from the Gila system of more <br />than 3,000,000 acre-feet per annum. California proposes to limit <br />Arizona's accountability under the Compact to the safe annual <br />(or replenishab1e) yield, computed by California operation <br />studies at about 1,750,000 acre-feet for the entire Gila basin <br />in Arizona and New Mexico. <br /> <br />9. <br />