Memorandum Report - Lower Colorado River Project

Document: United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Memorandum Report, Lower Colorado River Perfection, Region 3, A.B. West, Regional Director, Boulder City, Nevada, March 1963, page 13resulting in a further depletion of the ground-water supply. In the metropolitan area of Tucson, which has a population of nearly 300,000, most of the urban development is in desert terrain and is dependent entirely on the diminishing ground-water supplies for municipal and industrial water. The development of additional mineral resources, an ever-stronger demand for water that can be utilized by the large urban population for residences and outdoor recreational purposes and for grazing, land improvement and stockwater water ponds, all of which are high on the watersheds and which are urgently needed to maintain this vital segment of the agricultural economy, will result in further depletion of streamflows and place heavier burdens on ground-water resources. The net result of the recently completed reanalysis of the Central Arizona Project area has been to clearly illustrate that the present economy of the project area is being supported at the expense of a diminishing ground-water supply. Without additional water, a substantial part of the presently irrigated lands will ultimately be forced out of production, urban development will be retarded, and present capital investments in farms, factories, and homes will be forfeited. The 1,200,000 acre-feet of water assumed for import into central Arizona pending a decision by the Supreme Court in the Arizona vs. California litigation would offset only about one-half of the estimated present annual ground-water overdraft in the central Arizona area. The reanalysis has also indicated that many areas throughout Arizona and western New Mexico have existing water shortages and hope to benefit by direct diversion of Colorado River water and 7Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 1,306,268 byte