Imperial Valley Press, Volume 2, Number 7, 31 May 1902 — Salt River Water [ARTICLE]

Salt River Water

In the Salt River valley, Arizona, around Phoenix, there has been begun litigation which promises to be in the courts for several years. This illustrates well the importance of getting land where there can be no question of the abundance of water. In the Salt Rive- valley the early settlers had more water than they could use, and

there was begun an era of expansion during which water was spread over a steadily increasing area, until, even in years of normal rainfall, there was a scant supply of water. It became the practice to divide the water equally between the consumers, regardless of priority of use or appropriation. Finally the local court rendered a decision that the land in the valley was entitled to the use of the water according to priority of use, which implied that a certain portion of the land using water would have its supply cut off even in normal years. No effort was made, however, to enforce this principle for several years, but steps are now being taken to enforce that principle. During the last three or four years the rainfall has been light, and the water available for irrigation has been cut down, until an enforcement of the court's ruling would leave but a small portion of the irrigated area with ample water.

The decision, it will be noted, is not based on the tiling of claims to water, but on its actual use, and in enforcing this construction of law, if it holds in the higher courts, there will he the difficult problem of determining just when each acre of land was Drought under irrigation.

This procedure, if successful, wjill take water from a number of partially irrigated farms, rendering valueless the improvements, but. will ni&ke other farms exceedingly valuable.

The people of the valley, however. have long been considering a storage reservoir system, and it is highly probable that this action will tend to hasten tne construction of the system, through which water would be made available for everybody.