Economic Significance of Water Supply

Attachment No. 2, Lower Colorado River Basin Project, Economic Significance of Water Supply for Homes, Industry, Agriculture, page 19TOTAL FREIGHT MOVEMENT IS APPROXIMATELY DOUBLE RAIL SHIPMENTS URBANIZATION OF FARM LANDS An inevitable result of the progressive urban sprawl that is occurring throughout the National and particularly in the Southwest, is the loss of prime agricultural land. It is widely acknowledged that this encroachment usually takes out the best farmlands rather than the marginal lands. In the West this is especially so because nearly all the cities have sprung from towns in the irrigated farming areas, and the very economic base which gives the cities their growth and vitality is being taken over in the population explosion. For example, the incorporated area of Phoenix, Arizona, has increased from 17.1 square miles to 222.7 square miles during the last 14 years. While this reflects the type of economic growth which has taken place on the urban side of the fence, it has pre-empted both the land and water from the farm side. The consequence is a weakening of the agricultural sector and its associated trade and industry, commonly referred to as agribusiness. There will be serious effects on the Nation's food supply as a result of this urbanization. In the semitropical area embraced by the major farming regions of soutern California and Arizona, urbanization and other nonagricultural encroachments will, by 2020, take 900,000 acress of irrigated farmland. This would reduce by 42 percent the presently irrigated area in southern California and Arizona. These are the areas which furnish large proportions of the Nation's supply of citrus fruits, and winter vegetables. Already, urban expansion in southern California and Arizona has made heavy inroads on orchards and vineyards. To the prospective home buyer, a new subdivision offering orange trees in every backyard has its appeal, but the effect on agriculture is devastating. From 1949 to 1959 orchard and vineyard acreages decreased by 27 percent, from 409,000 to 299,000 acres. The reduction of citrus groves in Los Angeles County has been most serious. Acreages have been cut nearly in half each succeeding 5-year period since 1949 reducing the acreage from 53,000 down to only 8,000 at present. These reductions and the inevitability of more to come is alarming in the face of increasing population, which depends heavily upon this area for these vital food products. The demand will continue to grow while the productive land base declines. Today, when the problem of production maladjustments in some sections of agriculture occupy the attention of most people, there are few who are aware of the urgency of action now to replace these lands or offset the losses in some way. It should be recalled that the existence of the producing areas rests upon irrigation developments that were undertaken years ago--the benefits now being realized by the whole Nation in terms of better health through nutritious foods are the results of early irrigation developments, both private and governmental.Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 1,625,921 byte