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.- ~ ..... e-". c" Progress Report News of Arizona'stW.jjtar Fight . . RECEVt.U By Howard J. Smith, Executiye Secretary Central Arizona Project Association 510 Goodrich Building . Phone 2-1112 Phoenix, Arizona " ... JUt.: 4 1951 GOL..ADO . A'" QlrVATIOM loldD '/!ASHINGTOO ~;l.l indications are that the Central Arizona Project Bill (S75) will be brought out otl the Senate noor for consideration this week. As this is written, Senators Ernest If. Mcfarland and Carl Hayden are prepared to pueh for its passage as soon as tha ljpper house of Congress co.mpletes consideration of current foreign affairs items. ~st year, the authorization bill passed the Senate 55 - 28, and it is anticipated ...rizona will be given favorable consideration again. On Senate passage, the bill Would go to the House, 'Where a similar bill was halted by the Committee on Interior and Insular Affldrs, which voted to postpone action until California and Arizona had negotiated their differences or until the SUpreme Court had adjudioated the issues. We in Arioona lmow how iJnpossible that is: California has fought negotiation and Supreme Court settlement, and the Court has said it cannot decide the fight until one of the parties has been injured or is faced with a threat of injury. !iay 28, 1951 (Republication Solicited) QUOTES TO REMEllBER TIlE RECLAMATION ERA (May 1): "The water allotment in the Salt River project has been ~~t to l! acre-feet per acre. This means that irrigators will have to cut their acre- .'ie one-third to one-helf in order to insure marketable crops. The Gila River Pro- j~ct will have one-half acre-foot of ""ter per acre of land at CooUdge Dam. HoW6'8', d~nsidering seepage losses, the deUvered amount will be still less. !.lost of the f.nners in the Gila RiVBr Project are planting only 20 per cent of their land and $y others are not planting at all. The Gila River will probably be a dead stream bt May 15. Pumping costs in both the Gila and Salt River Basins will be greater this year due to the most recent 10-foot drop in groundwater level. The Maricopa Water Conservation District, which distributss the water from Carl Pleasant Dam (capacity 179,000 acre-feet) will receive no surface flow and will have to rely en- tirely on pumped water. The pump head here now exceeds 300 feet. The Little Colo- rado River has experienced practically no runoff all season. The state, as a whOle, will probably enter the winter months of 1951-52 with as little reservoir storage as e-ter recorded." TIlE CALIFORNIA FARMER, "lh tl)is issue, 1i!1ich emphasUes irrigation, this (construc- tion of SlIlall earth dams) serves to dramatize the fact that more water falls on Cal- ifornia than we shall ever need in the conceivable future, but we have a long way to go in conserving and intelligently using it." IJENVER POST: "California -- which is expected to oppose the (Upper Colorado River basin storage) plan in the belief it would cut off that state's chances of making a #ew fight to get more Colorado R:l.ver water -- indicated it would ask for a delay (on Upper Basin developmen~ plans)". (Arizona contends that California will endeavor to block the efforts of any state or area to get any ""ter from the river. Cali- fornia has established ene-intends to get all of 't"ffir riverts flow.) GROUNDWATER Arizonat s undergrOlmd water supplies have been mined to the point of exhaustion. '!he table has fallen to the point where many farmers can no longer pump economically, The Association and many"Arizona business, ranch, and civic leaders have been eyeing the situation with well-founded misgivings, and movements are under way to take stope necessary to protect Arizona's fast-disappearing water supplies. Superior Court lTl1.dge Charles Bemstein has held hearings on conditions in Maricopa County, and an appeal has been made to have the state Land and Water Commissioner, W. W. Lane, declare the Salt River Valley a critical area. All of Pinal County probably will be declared a critical area in another few weeks. In the background, meanwhile, is a muvement far strengthening of the state water code by the Legislature. Present con- trOls, it is felt by some, are not stringent enough to. cope with the present situatial.. CENTRAL ARIZONA PRO.JECT ASSOCIATION DIRECTORS W"'YNE M. "'KIN, PRE.IDI[NT . .... L. B"'RTLETT . H~B&RT H. BROWIf . VICTQR I. CORBELL. !'R"'NK M. ,..,....R . HUGH C. GRUW.LL . JOHN M. .l"'CO.. CLl[ONT.I<N...H'. W.W.LANIE. ....H.M..a.HAHaY. JtOOam:::KJ.MCJlULLIN. W.R,MOIfTGIOIIGlV. JONN1'. NUTT . RIHII:Y......LlfON DILUf.TANLIlY. O.L...-TAPLKY . GlUNNC.T...VLOR . JIS.IN.UDALL. ANTHOIfYVANWAClInf....JR.. A.M.WAIIID