Reply Letter Giving Report from the Bureau of Budget Prior to the Irigation and Reclamation Hearings on the Pacific Southwest Water Plan and S. 1661

Letter: Draft, to Henry M. Jackson, 4/8/64 (carbon copy), page 33 at that time postponed a final decision on the project until settlement of the water rights controversy on the Lower Colorado River. Subsequently, congressional action was deferred pending judicial determination on this matter. On June 3, 1963, the Supreme Court, in Arizona v. California, resolved the major issues in dispute, and determined that Arizona was entitled to 2.8 million acre-feet of the annual flow of the Colorado River. California and Nevada were found to be entitled to 4.4 and 0.3 million acre-feet, respectively. Immediately following the decision, on June 4, 1963. Senator Hayden and Senator Goldwater introduced S. 1658. Pacific Southwest Water Plan Under the provisions of the Supreme Court decision, the Secretary of the Interior was assigned responsibility for allocating any deficiency below the 7.5 million acre-foot annual flow of the Colorado River assumed to be available for use in the Lower Colorado Basin. Estimates of the Department of the Interior indicate that less than 7.5 million acre-feet may be available in the future. This possibility of future shortage, together with the fact that California is presently using 5.1 million acre-feet, or 700,000 acre-feet more than its entitlement, made it clear to the Department that diversion of 1.2 millionEpson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 3,364,582 byte