The Lower Colorado River Basin Project Senate Report

Document: 88th Congress, 2d Session, Senate Calendar No. 1267, The Lower Colorado River Basin Project, Report No. 1330, Agust 6, 1964, page 66 THE LOWER COLORADO RIVER BASIN PROJECT was submitted. The proposed bill provided for the development of the water resources of the entire Pacific Southwest, the establishment of a Pacific Southwest Development Fund, and the creation of a Pacific Southwest Regional Water Commission. From the discussion of that bill and S. 1658 as originally introduced by Senators Hayden and Goldwater, an amendment was offered by the Honorable Frank E. Moss, chairman of the subcommittee, which amends S. 1658 as originally introduced and which was reported favorably by the subcommittee on July 27, 1964. PURPOSES OF THE BILL The purposes of the bill are: (1) to augment the existing water supply in the Lower Colorado River Basin; (2) to remove the threats of water shortages; (3) to authorize construction of the following units of the Lower Colorado Basin project: (a) the main stream reservoir unit consisting of Bridge Canyon and Marble Canyon projects; (b) the Central Arizona unit; (c) the southern Nevada water supply unit; (4) to secure to Arizona, California, and Nevada the shares of the river which the Supreme Court apportioned to them; (5) to accomplish the foregoing without impinging on the rights of the upper basin States-Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming-under the Colorado River compact; (6) to provide for recreational facilities, and the conservation of natural, historic and archacological objects; (7) to conserve and develop fish and wildlife; (8) to authorize the creation of the Colorado-Pacific Regional Water Commission. NEED FOR THE BILL The immediate occasion for the bill is the need for supplemental water in central Arizona. This area is, and for many years has been, one of the most rapidly growing in the Nation. This growth has been based on the mining of local ground waters; that is, their extraction without replenishment. The overdraft on the ground water now exceeds 2.2 million acre-feet per year. More than one-quarter million acres of land once in cultivation and under irrigation stand idle because of insufficient water supplies or because water costs have increased to a point where further farming is uneconomic. This idle area will increase unless the water supply of the area is augmented by importation. The obvious, although incomplete, solution to Arizona's problem is the importation of surface water from the Colorado River through the Central Arizona unit. This, however, is at best a partial and temporary expedient, for the planned diversion of 1.2 million acre-feet by the Central Arizona unit will result in deliveries of approximately 1 million acre-feet, thus leaving a deficit under present conditions of 1.2 million acre-feet. While Arizona has been seeking to have the Central Arizona project authorized, California has proceeded under State and Federal financing to use (in terms of diversions less returns) some 5.1 million acre-feet per year, or some 700,000 acre-feet more than her entitlement of 4.4 million of the first 7.5 million acre-feet available in the main stream. California has thus been using waters which have been available because Arizona, Nevada, and the upper basin States have not yet put their full entitlements to use.Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 1,766,085 byte