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Department of the Interior (Interior Department), Arizona, each
year, had claim to 2.8 million acre-feet of Colorado River water.
In 1964, under Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. sec. 48-2901 (West
1997), the Harquahala Valley Irrigation District (HID) was formed
as an Arizona municipal corporation or political subdivision, and
not as a taxable corporation, for the purpose of establishing a
local water distribution system in and about Harquahala Valley,
Arizona. With regard specifically to water irrigation districts,
under Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. sec. 48-2978 (West 1997), it is
provided, among other things, that irrigation districts may
purchase or acquire water rights, construct, acquire, and
purchase canals, ditches, and reservoirs, and distribute water
for irrigation purposes.
In 1968, pursuant to the Boulder Canyon Project Act and
apparently as a followup to the Supreme Court’s decision in
Arizona v. California, supra, the Colorado River Basin Project
Act (CRBPA), Pub. L. 90-537, 82 Stat. 885 (1968), was enacted,
which authorized construction by the Federal Government of the
Central Arizona Project (CAP), a system of aqueducts and related
facilities for distribution of lower Colorado River water
throughout Central Arizona. Under this statute, Colorado River
water that would become available for irrigation of land in
Arizona through the CAP distribution system generally was to be
made available only to land that had a “recent irrigation
history”. CRBPA sec. 304, 82 Stat. 891.
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