Hoover Dam
Click here to see how Hoover Dam was paid
for, and to discuss it.
Imperial
Irrigation District and the
All-American Canal
The Imperial Irrigation District is one of the most powerful political
bodies in California, and they had a whip hand in defining the legislation
that California's representatives would introduce to the Congress. Even
today, the Imperial Valley uses an extensive waterworks to produce its
magnificent agriculture.
The All-American Canal was so-named because it would be a canal wholly across American land, avoiding the need for a Mexican corporation or the involvement of two federal governments instead of one. In actuality, there were two canals built, one to the Imperial Valley and one to the Coachella Valley.
One of the reasons Arizona opposed the creation of an All-American Canal so strongly was because it would give California the ability to appropriate more water more quickly than Arizona. If California started drawing more water through the All-American Canal, under the doctrine of prior appropriation, Arizona would not be able to force California to reduce that amount.
Although the Boulder Canyon Project Act authorized 2.8 million acre-feet to be taken by Arizona, there was no way in 1928 for Arizona to actually use that much water. The vast majority of the population and agriculture was hundreds of miles away in the middle of Arizona, and there was no way to get the water to the cities without a massive project of Arizona's own, called by now the Central Arizona Project, which had been advocated by Arizona politicians for years, but had never been funded or built. California, naturally, categorically opposed the Central Arizona Project for the same reason Arizona opposed the All-American Canal.
The Imperial Irrigation District Homepage. This gives current information on the operation of the District.
The IID All-American Canal Homepage. This describes current maintenance to the canal, the present uses of the canal and future plans for the canal. There is also an excellent map showing where the Canal goes.
The latest Fishing Report from the All American Canal.
Paying for the All-American Canal
Unlike Hoover Dam, whose notes would eventually be paid off by selling
hydroelectric power, the All-American and Coachella canals were to be paid
off by the selling of water through contracts with the irrigation
districts served by the canals. Both projects were in the black by the
mid-nineteen-eighties.
Ratification of the Colorado River Compact as a
"condition
precedent"
Congress states in this section that although it has passed the BCPA, it
has not "really" been ratified until the states involved have ratified the
Colorado River Compact. However, rather than let Arizona stymie the
passage of the BCPA by refusing to ratify the Compact, there is an
alternate method of approval:
If
The Colorado River Compact governs...or does
it?
The Congressional force now put behind the Colorado River Compact would be
governed at least in part by the Compact. Unfortunately, this would raise
some questions of legislative intent when Arizona v. California addressed the question in 1934.
The Gila River
Arizona believed the primary issue of the BCPA was the Gila River.
The Gila is the largest tributary of the Colorado that pases through Arizona, and if Arizona's allotment of Colorado River water was interpreted to include the Gila, Arizona would be entitled to practically nothing from the Colorado.
Example: Assume Arizona is allotted 3 million acre-feet of water from the Colorado River, and the Gila River has an annual flow of 2.5 million acre-feet. California could, in that case, take all of the Colorado river and just divert it to Los Angeles so long as it let .5 million acre-feet trickle through to Arizona.
Further, becfause the Gila enters the Colorado so far south, Arizona feared that it might be required to shoulder more of the burden of supplying Mexico with its allotment of water.
Example: Assume the U.S. signs a treaty with Mexico saying that it will let 1.5 million acre-feet of water per year flow through the gates into Mexico, and the Gila River has an annual flow of 2.5 million acre-feet. Again, California would be able to divert all of the waters of the Colorado to Los Angeles, and Arizona would be forced to release the full 1.5 million acre-feet through the Gila and only consume 1 million acre-feet.The Gila River is as much a part of Arizona's history as it is a part of the landscape. The Gila flows chiefly through Arizona, though a small part of it is in New Mexico. The Navajo Indian nation has lived along the Gila River for many years. During World War Two, an internment camp for Japanese-Americans who were evacuated from California was set up along the Gila, and the state has recently set up a park to educate people about this horrible event.
Dean Terisaki's image collection of the Gila River internment camp.
The Gila River Indian community has a Land and Water Management Page as part of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project.
The US Geologic Survey homepage for real-time monitoring of Stream-Gaging sites in Arizona. The Lower Gila River Basin site is a place where you can figure out exactly how much is actually reaching the Colorado.
The City of Gilbert Department of Parks and Recreation sponsors regular "float trips" down the Gila.
The Gila National Forest recreation page contains information about recreation on the Gila River and man-made lakes along it.
The Southwest Center has filed suit against the Forest Service for allowing grazing at the headwaters of the Gila, alleging that this will threaten the endangered loach minnow and spikedance.
This clause seriously affects Arizona's standing with respect to California, because in 1928, Arizona had actually appropriated very little of the water of the Colorado, but California, though the Imperial Valley Project, had been claiming and using water from the Colorado for years. Whatever the Secretary of the Interior decided about the water, he would have to allow California to keep taking what it had already taken.