WSP00634 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

c "" ~. . "j FACT SHEET CONCERNING THE CEKTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT (Ml:ly 2;5, 1951) WHAT IS THE CENTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT? '~ - r:". ,Co c. The Central Arizona Project is a reclamation project. It would bring 1,200,000 acre- ~eet of water from the Colorado River to Central Arizona, and vrould generate 750,000 kilowatts of power at 13rir:ge Canyon ram. The water would be stored at Bridge Canyon oem, then would flow dow'1"~i.vE;r, generating power at Hoover and Davis Dams, and would be lifted from the rive~ near Parker, Arizona. The pump lift WOQld be 985 feet. The ~ter then would flow b:T gt.avity th:::,ough a 245-.mile system of aqueducts and canals to ~storically cultivated iarnls direly in need, because of the worst drouth in history, 0:( a supplemental water supply obtainable only from Arizona's share of the Colorado R;j.ver. WHAT WILL THE C~ITRAL ARIZONA PROJECT COST? The Central Arizona Project .nll cost) according to present estimates, $788,000,000. This cost vdll vary with prices of materials and labor. It has been estimated as low 801$ $596,000,000. HOW WILL THE CENTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT PAY FOR ITSELF? The Central Arizona Project vr.ill be paid for by re'~nues from the use of water and J;lower. Only It percent of the cost will be nonreimbursable directly to the Federal T~easury, and that It percent vall be reimbursed indirectly many, many times. This P~oject is planned on precisely the same standard~california's Central Valley, Colorado's Big-Thompson, and other big, sOlli,d Projects. WHAT ABOUT THE COLORAOO RIVER WATER FIGHT? For nearly 30 years California has blocked all attempts by Arizona to obtain her r;tghtful share of Colorado River wat'3r. The Law of the River, establishing distribu- tion of its vmters, includes the 'Santa Fe Compact, the Boulder Canyon Project Act, the California Self-Limitation Act, and state contracts vdth the Federal government. This Law gives California 4,400,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water, and Arizona, 2,800,000, plus half the surplus to each state after October 1, 1963. The essence of the ,mole Colorado River quarrel is that California seeks to block reclamation deve- lopment of the river in the hope that eventually all the Colorado River can be Cali- fornia's. In this bold attempt, California has seemed at times to be fighting only Arizona's right to delivery of 1,200,000 acre-feet of contracted waters; actually, California'S threat extends to every other Basin State. ~\lHAT THE CE!'Y'l'RAL ARIZOl-iA PROJECT IS NOT 1 California propagandists have said many things, mostly false, about the Central Ari- zona Project---and have said them often through the mouths of du]:S s and stooges. One of the most vddely distributed capsules of California truth-distortions says the Pro- ject would "use water it doesn't own, lift it nearly twice as high as the Washington Monument, convey it more than 200 miles at a cost to Federal taxpayers of $2 billion, to irrigate 200,000 acres of privately ovmed land on which to raise crops already in surplus", The truth is that Arizona is so certain of her right to the disputed water that she has tried thrice to get SUpreme Court settlement and provides an avenue of Court action in the present bill. The aqueduct length and the pump lift height have been proved feasible by California vdth an aqueduct similar in length and a pump lift twice as high. The cost to the taxpayers will be not a cent, for the Project is to- tally reimbursable directly or indirectly. The crops raised are normally specialty crops, not in surplus; and the acreage is 750,000,8011 historically cultivated. THE S1'ATUS OF THE CENTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT A joL~t Federal-State survey has deemed it economically and engineeringly feasible, and Congressional authorization is being sought. Hearings have been held and the U. S. Senate has acted favorably, not once but twice.