Irrigation in Arizona and more particularly irrigation in Maricopa County means to almost everyone the highly successful world-famous Salt River project. Actually, the Salt River project with its 240,000 acres constitutes less than one-half of the irrigated farmland in the county.

Surrounding it are a number of smaller irrigation districts and large blocks of farmland not presently in any irrigation district. On the east side of the Salt River project is the Roosevelt Water Conservation District with 39,000 acres.

Over on the west side of the valley there is the Maricopa County Municipal Water Conservation District No. 1 with 35,000 acres. Just south of the Maricopa Water District lies the Roosevelt Irrigation District with 39,000 acres, and just south of it is the Buckeye Irrigation District with 17,000 acres.

A number of smaller irrigation districts, electrical districts, and ranch operations make up the remainder of the irrigated acres in the valley. Incidentally, the Salt River project is the only Federal reclamation project in Maricopa County. The construction costs of the other projects were financed with private capital.

Most of the land in Maricopa County has been irrigated for many years. The land in the Salt River project was brought under irrigation by 1910, or shortly thereafter. The Buckeye Irrigation District dates back to around 1900. Some of the larger ranches not in irrigation districts were farmed prior to 1920. The Roosevelt Water Conservation District, the Roosevelt Irrigation District, and the Maricopa County Municipal Water Conservation District No. 1 completed their projects in the 1920's.

A large acreage of new land irrigated by pump water from wells was developed following World War II. Presently, it is estimated, there are more than one-half million acres of irrigated land in Maricopa County.

South of this area in Pinal County there are several hundred thousand acres under irrigation. I will not discuss the water problems of those areas in this statement. I know, however, that they are critically short of water and that water production costs are high. In Maricopa County surface water has been inadequate to supply the needs of the projects originally planned as gravity water projects: the Salt River project with the best gravity water supply in the valley has found it insufficient to meet irrigation demands and now almost one-half of its deliveries are from wells. The Buckeye Irrigation District, located on the Gila River, originally had an adequate supply of surface water. It is entitled to 1.1 percent of the water diverted at Granite Reef or from 5,000 to 11,000 acre-feet a year.

It is entitled, also, to divert from the Gila River. From 1900 to 1931, the district diverted all its needs. Diversions from the Gila ranged from 115,000 to 169,000 acre-feet a year. However, available surface water for this project has been steadily declining and pumping from wells has increased. In 1931, 116,000 acre-feet were diverted and, for the first time, pump water was used.

Four thousand acre-feet of pump water supplemented the gravity supply that year. Last year, 1962, 15,000 acre-feet were diverted and 84,000 acre-feet were pumped. The Roosevelt Water Conservation District is entitled to 5.6 percent of the water diverted at Granite Reef

or from 22,000 to 35,000 acre-feet a year from that source. The rest of its water supply comes from wells. The Roosevelt Irrigation District is an all-pump project and so are the other lands in the valley except the Maricopa County Municipal Water Conservation District No. 1.

Now, I will discuss this last district in more detail because I know its problems very well. The project was designed as an all-gravity water project. The watershed covers 1,430 square miles of the drainage area of the Agua Fria River including Lynx Creek and the southwestern slopes of Mount Mingus. Prior to the construction of the storage dam, runoff records developed by the district based on U.S. Geological Survey data, indicated that the mean annual flow of the river at Lake Pleasant was 188,000 acre-feet. This fact is illustrated on the graph entitled "Runoff Agua Fria River at Lake Pleasant.”

This amount was adequate to supply the needs of the acreage in the proposed district. Since the construction of the dam, the mean flow has been 42,000 acre-feet. This is less than one-fourth of the mean flow before the dam was built. It became apparent to the district that wells had to be drilled to provide additional water for irrigation.

Statistical data pertaining to these wells are graphed on the chart entitled "Comparative Ground-Water Conditions." In 1939, 43 wells were drilled and equipped with pumping units. During 1946 and 1947, 17 more were drilled and equipped, making 60 in all.

Most of these wells were drilled and cased to 500 feet. Fifty-four of these have been deepened during the past few years to 1,000 feet or more. We are, at present, deepening the rest. From 1946 through 1954, landowners within the project drilled an additional 50 wells. In 1940, the average lift for the district wells was 245 feet, the static water level 172 feet, the average unit production was 7.38 acre-feet a day at a power cost of $1.97 an acre-foot.

In July 1963, the average lift was 511 feet, a decline of 266 feet or 112 feet a year. The static water level dropped from 172 to 456 feet. The average unit production has fallen to 0.47 acre-feet a day and the power cost to produce an acre-foot has risen to $6.92. You can readily see by projecting these lines on the chart that, without supplemental water, the Maricopa County Municipal Water Conservation District No. 1, and I am sure, many areas similar to it in Maricopa County and elsewhere in the State, face economic disaster in the not-too-distant future.

Is it worth while to rescue this segment of our economy? We think it is. We know that agriculture with its allied industries is and should continue to be one of the State's best economic assets. With only twothirds of the Maricopa Water District being farmed, because of the insufficient water supply, it produces annually $10 million in crops. Specialty crops such as citrus, grapes, lettuce, melons, other vegetables, and rose bushes produce about $6 million yearly; 30,000 head of cattle are pen fed annually in the district.

To make it possible to continue farming in this district we are conserving water by all possible means. We have concrete lined almost all of our distribution system and farm ditches.

We have leveled land to reduce the fall in order to get better water penetration. At the lower ends of fields we have built sumps to catch

the tail water which is then pumped through pipelines to the upper end of the fields for reuse. We are experimenting with artificial recharge of ground-water reservoirs. Near the north end of our project we have successfully injected floodwater into the ground-water aquifers through existing wells and in pits.

Water conservation, including improved irrigation practices, and the eventual possibility of increasing runoff from watersheds through vegetative changes and weather modification are and will be increasingly employed to alleviate the short water supply.

However, additional water must be brought into the central Arizona project area from the Colorado River to supplement existing supplies and reduce the overdraft on our ground-water basins. The need for this supplemental water has existed for many years. It must be brought into the central Arizona project area as soon as possible to save us from economic disaster.

Thank you very much.

Senator HAYDEN. Are there any questions?

Senator KUCHEL. No, sir.

Senator HAYDEN. Thank you for your statement, sir.

We will be glad to hear from Mr. Wilbur W. Weigold, secretary and general manager of the Buckeye Irrigation Co.

STATEMENT OF WILBUR W. WEIGOLD, SECRETARY AND GENERAL MANAGER OF THE BUCKEYE IRRIGATION CO., BUCKEYE, ARIZ.

Mr. WEIGOLD. Mr. Chairman, I am Wilbur W. Weigold, of Buckeye, Ariz. I am appearing on behalf of the Buckeye Water Conservation and Drainage District and the Buckeye Irrigation Co., of which I am secretary and general manager.

The Buckeye district is located in central Maricopa County on the north side of the Gila River, immediately west of the confluence of the Gila, the Salt, and the Aqua Fria Rivers. The Buckeye Irrigation Co. is a nonprofit mutual corporation which provides water to about 17,400 acres under cultivation in this district.

The lands we serve have water rights in the Gila River dating back to 1885. However, since 1930 we have never been able to divert enough stream water to satisfy those decreed rights. The Gila is usually dry the year round at our headgate and we seldom get more than a few thousand acre-feet each year of streamflow.

Depletion of streamflow has made us almost totally dependent on a ground water supply from the 48 wells we now operate. Ground water levels in our district are continually falling; replacement costs are rising; power costs have increased; and the quality of available ground water is becoming progressively worse all the time.

We have done what we can to obtain the supplemental supply of water we need. We are diverting sewage effluent discharged into the Salt River by the city of Phoenix. We have supported flood-control programs to provide better runoff and upstream channel clearance. We have worked to conserve and more effectively use the water we have. However, our best hope is the availability of Colorado River water in Maricopa County.

Our district and company are debt free and we are not anxious to take on a heavy financial obligation. But we are proud that the

town of Buckeye was the first in the Nation to assume the obligation of financing, building, and operating a desalinization plant for an entire municipal water supply.

I might say here, to correct the record, that I think the amount of salt in the water was between 2,000 and 2,500 parts per million and not the 4,000.

Four thousand parts per million is about the quality of our pump water for irrigation in the district.

We are similarly willing to pay what is economically feasible for water to keep the land in the Buckeye district productive.

I urge the committee to give favorable consideration to this bill before you. We hope that Colorado River water does not come to central Arizona too late to do us any good.

Thank you.

Senator HAYDEN. Thank you for your statement, sir.

Any questions?

Senator KUCHEL. No.

Senator GOLDWATER. How much does it cost you per thousand gallons to treat that water in Buckeye?

Mr. WEIGOLD. Senator, I do not know the cost on that.

That is handled by the city of Buckeye and not the irrigation district.

Senator GOLDWATER. I see.

Thank you.

Senator HAYDEN. Hon. Lew Davis, the mayor of Tucson.

STATEMENT OF LEW DAVIS, MAYOR OF TUCSON, ARIZ.

Mr. DAVIS. Senator, my name is Lew Davis.

I am the mayor of Tucson. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of a community I came to as a visitor just 12 years ago.

Everyone is aware of Arizona's and Tucson's population explosion and that Tucson has been recognized as one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the Nation. We are not seeking a way to stop the growth, but we are seeking a way to cope with it.

Let me relate to you the story of Tucson in an attempt to depict both its most urgent problem, and the means for its solution.

Historically, Tucson is one of the oldest comunities in this country. There have been some attempts to show that it might be the oldest. We are concerned here, however, with its growth during this century and, more particularly, the past 20 to 30 years.

Tucson is the only large city in Pima County and it shares a common border at one point with an Indian reservation which is nearly the size of Connecticut.

It is beautifully situated in a broad valley, fringed by mountain ranges including the pine-covered Catalinas and 9,000-foot high Mount Lemmon immediately to the north. During the winter months, people may ski in the morning on Mount Lemmon, take an hour's drive to Tucson for lunch, and swim in the afternoon.

Prior to World War II, Tucson had a small but steady growth, resulting primarily from health seekers and winter visitors who became permanent residents. Another factor contributing to its growth

was the University of Arizona, which has had a constantly increasing enrollment.

The dramatic upturn in population occurred during the war years. Southern Arizona, with an unrivalled number of clear days per year, was obviously a natural choice for training airplane pilots. Thousands were stationed there for training, and with them came other thousands who worked in auxiliary activities.

The population boom was on in Tucson, but didn't end with the war. The thousands of workers remained, and thousands more came. In fact, many of the airmen who trained at Tucson returned after the war. The influx has never let up. It continues today at a rate of more than 1,000 per month.

The Davis-Monthan Airbase continues as a Strategic Air Command installation now housing a missile wing, a bomber and fighter wing, and this country's sole base of the formidable U-2 Reconnaissance Wing. Tucson is the center, also, of a significant part of this Nation's nuclear deterrent ability. It is the site of 18 Titan II missile complexes. Figures of all kinds might be cited to depict the extent of the boom around Tucson. The astonishing number of new homes could be mentioned, or the miles of roads built into former desert areas skyrocketing demands for electric power. But I am here today to speak of water.

As you know, the entire water supply for the Tucson area comes from wells which tap a diminishing underground source.

If we are overpumping that source now, where will we look for water for additional thousands?

The population explosion nationwide is continuing, as is the migration to the West and the Southwest. It is probable that some of your children, and almost certainly some of your grandchildren, will live in the Southwest.

Unfortunately, I cannot bring our full story home to you without resorting to figures and charts. It is my hope that the very magnitude of the figures and the bold projections of the charts will have their own dramatic effect.

The charts I have here are reproduced in smaller size and attached to this statement. The first, entitled "Tucson Metropolitan AreaPopulation," reveals that Tucson and its surrounding area had a population of 43,000 in 1930 and 58,000 in 1940. By 1950, the figure had climbed to 123,000, and today it is just short of 300,000.

By 1970, the population is expected to rise to 390,000, and by 1980 it will have jumped to 685,000.

May I say, in connection with these projections, that they are based on studies by our city-county planning department, and are confirmed by other projections made independently. We have erred in the past on these projections, but always on the conservative side. This, I understand, is an error made in most U.S. population forecasts in recent years.

What does this mean in terms of water usage in an area which is already seriously mining its underground supply? I call your attention to the chart entitled "Tucson Metropolitan Area-Water Demands. Acre-Feet per Year," and particularly to the column captioned "1980."