Bulletin 1.pdf - California Department of Water Resources - State of ...

APPENDIX E
COLORADO RIVER
Diversions were first made from Colorado River for the irrigation of
lands in California in the 1870s. Over the years this irrigation has increased
tremendously, so that the agricultural economy within California
dependent upon Colorado River is now of significant importance to the
State and to the Nation. Furthermore, since completion of the Colorado
River Aqueduct by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
in 1940, a present population of more than 4,000,000 in the SoutIl
Coastal Area of California is dependent upon Colorado River as a source
of supplemental water for domestic, industrial, and municipal purposes.
Increasing diversions from Colorado River for irrigation of lands in
Oalifornia, together with other diversions for upstream irrigation, were
so great by the early 1920s as to cause deficiencies in supply during dry
years. The urgent need for regulation of the river, both for augmentation
of the supply during dry years and for control of floods, was apparent.
However, preliminary to construction of works for river regulation it
was essential that an understanding be reached as to division of the waters
between the interests of the seven states into which Colorado River extends.
The Colorado River-Compact, sig'ned in 1922 by commissioners representing
the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico,
Utah, and Wyoming, and the United States, apportioned the waters of the
Colorado River System between the Upper and I-lower Basins of the river.
As defined in the compact, the dividing point between the Upper and
Lower Basins is Lee Ferry, a point on the main stream of Colorado River
one mile below the mouth of Paria River in northern Arizona. In 1923
the legislatures of all Colorado River Basin states, except Arizona,ratified
the compact. The State of Arizona did not ratify the compact until 1944,
when its legislature gave its approval.
Initial legislative efforts in connection with further development on
Colorado River were the so-called Kettner Bills, seeking authorization for
construction of the All-American Canal, which were introduced in 1919
and 1920, but failed to come to vote. The first of several bills providing
for authorization of the Boulder Canyon Project was introduced in 1922
by Congressman Phil D. Swing and Senator Hiram W. Johnson, and
became known as the first Swing-Johnson Bill. The Boulder Canyon
Project Act, as finally passed by the Congress in 1928, provided for construction,
operation, and maintenance of a storage dam and power plant
at Black Canyon or Boulder Canyon on the main stream of Colorado
River, and construction of the All-American Canal to divert water from
the river and convey it to Imperial and Coachella Valleys by a conduit
within the United States. The Secretary of the Interior was authorized
to contract for the sale of water and power that would assure repaying
the entire cost of the dam and power plant, with interest, together with
operation and maintenance expenses, and repayment without interest of
the cost of the All-American Canal under provisions of the Reclamation
( 635 )