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Show THE CITIZEN THE POLITICAL ISSUES OF THE COLORADO RIVER (By Huston Thompson, In Dearborn ' Independent.) The Colorado River is in politics. It is not mere petty politics, but smashing big national politics, commensurate with the size of this great river. What caused the political contest is not definitely known. The controversy, however, started shortly after the war. Perhaps Muscle Shoals and its hydraulic electric possibilities awoke politicians and power companies to the great prize that was at stake. At any rate, whereas Government officials, and particularly the men in its administrative departments previous to the war, had aroused little interest through their investigations, reports, and recommendations about this Red River of the Rockies, the situation is now seething. As practicaly all of the soil fit for farming in the great watershed of this river is arid, the value of water for reclamation purposes is almost priceless. In addition to farming, the states in' the upper regions of the river, like Colorado and Wyoming, will need water for domestic uses, if they propose to take care of large populations in the future. Cities like Denver have already absorbed about all of the water they can get from the eastern slope of the rockies. It has become necessary to look to the watershed on the western slope that runs down into the Colorado River. Becoming nervous over the possibility that those in the lower states might acquire prior rights under the law by virtue of application and use of the water, citizens of Colorado began to agitate for some sort of an agreement between the states, whereby a division of the water would be made for the future, which would let the people of Colorado, Wyoming, Physicians Supply Company SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS Hospital Supplies and Trusses Manufacturers of ABDOMINAL SUPPORTERS AND ELASTIC STOCKINGS 22 W. 2nd So. Salt Lake City Phone I Was. 2379. P. O. Doz 103 Utah, and New Mexico rest in peace so far as their future development was concerned. The agitation of the people of these states pressed down upon the Secretary of the Interior, who was making an investigation of the river under an Act of Congress of 1920, and in response thereto in his report to Congress the Secretary of the Interior urged, among other things, the enactment of a law permitting the states in the watershed of the Colorado River to enter into a treaty or compact to divide the flow of this stream. In answer to this recommendation, Congress passed an act committing itself to such a procedure on the part of the- - states The legislature of each of the seven states Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California in turn au, thorized representatives of their respective states to meet and draw up a compact between the states making a division of the water of the river for the future, with a proviso that the compact must be ratified by all the states before it can become effective. At last, after recommendiations dating back as far as President Roosevelts time, a real start was about to be made by the states interested in controlling the acts of the Colorado River for the benefit of the citizens of these western states. Their representatives gathered for action at Bishops Lodge, formerly the home of Bishop Lamey and now a charming hostelry situated among the hills three miles outside of the town of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After much travail, this assemblage of state representatives, together with the Hon. Herbert Hoover, representing the Federal Government, brought worth what has become known as The Seven-Stat- e This Compact. compact divided the great watershed into two basins. In the northern area there were grouped together Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico and in the lower basin the states of Nevada, California and Arizona. The point in the watershed on the river where the basins divided was at Lee Ferry, a short distance below the Utah line in Arizona. At this spot it was provided that water equivalent to 75,000,000 acre feet must, pass during a period of 10 years for the benefit of the states in the lower basin. Figured annually, this meant 7,500,000 acree feet of the water not already appropriated to be divided among Ari- - United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co. Buyers of MATTE, FURNACE PRODUCTS and FLOTATION LEAD ZINC ORE NEWHOUSE BLDG. SALT LAKE, UTAH zona, California and Nevada. They were to have an additional million acre feet a year already put to a beneficial use. The northern group of states was to have a like 75,000,000 acre feet from the river. Apparently satisfied after their arduous labors at Bishops Lodge, the commissioners departed for their respective states in peaceful and apparently confident frame of mind. Very shortly thereafter, six states had ratified the compact, but the State of Arizona refused and upon its refusal the political fat slipped into the fire where it has been ever since. Being unable to get the compact ratified by Arizona, the remaining six states drew up what they termed a Compact. When it came to ratification, however, the State of California insisted that with its ratification were to go certain requirements regarding the building of a reservoir at Boulder Dam in Arizona for the purpose of holding back the flood waters of the river and protecting the Imperial Valley from floods; increasing the supply of water for irrigating the Valley; creating power at the dam, and the lifting of water up on a lofty plateau to supply additional requirements of cities in southern California. This move on the part of California reacted on the State of Utah, which, in turn, withdrew from the compact, leaving but five states that have ratified the compact and are willing to stand by their ratification. It should be borne in mind that those states in the upper basin had declared that the interest which moved them was the reservation of enough water to assure them the reclamation of their arid lands; a domestic water supply for their cities and power requirements. They were not interested in the dispute between California and Arizona over the location of a storage and power reservoir in Arizona. Of course, they were all motivated by the desire to protect the people of the Imperial Valley from injury through floods. Arizonas state of mind was very acute and real to its representatives. Instead of a dam located at the Boulder site, they asserted the necessity of one located hundreds of miles above it at Glen Canyon. With a diversion dam in Bridge Canyon, several hundred miles below, they assert that they can create electric power as readily as at the Boulder Dam site. Moreover, they argue that with a tunnel seventy miles long through a rocky area they can reach and reclaim 3,000,000 acres of land in the heart of Arizona. They also assert that, as the dam will be located and the water stored in their state and power created there, they should have the right to tax such power, just as Pennsylvania has the right to tax antharcite coal that is mined in that state. It is calculated that the revenue from taxation would amount to approximately $3,000,000 a year. In attacking the position of California, the representatives of Arizona contend that the idea of raising water 1,500 feet and using, as they assert, several hundred thousand horsepower Six-Sta- te 9 to do so, so that the water may be carried by canal to Los Angeles and to other California cities, preposterous. They say that California has watersheds of her own, which can be tapped for her cities. They assert that if the water stored at the Boulder Canyon is used for power, there will have to be a continuous flow so great that it will give to Mexico, to which will go, far more than the over-floit has at present, while at the same time it will deprive Arizona of this water. Why, they ask, should California dominate the situation and get the use of three-fourth- s of the water stored, when none of the water of the river comes from her watersheds? Finally, they say that they are willing to enter into a compromise with Caliw fornia, distributing the amount allotted to the three states in the southern basin, giving Nevada all she has asked for and dividing the remainder on a fifty-fift- y basis between California and Arizona. This, they state, is as far as they will go and unless the other states meet these terms, they propose to submit the whole controversy to the courts of the United States. 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