United States v. Gila Valley Irrigation District

This is an appeal from a decree of the District Court declaring improper certain water-diversion practices of the Water Commissioner appointed by that court to administer its prior decree of June 29, 1935. We affirm.

The Gila River originates in Western New Mexico and flows in a general westerly direction across Arizona to its confluence with the Colorado River. The river’s volume varies- greatly during the year, and the region through which it flows is subject to cloudbursts and heavy floods. The rainy season is short, and the land through which" the river flows is “semi-arid or desert . . . requiring irrigation for successful agricultural and horticultural use.” Gila Valley Irrigation District v. United States, 118 F.2d 507, 508 (9th Cir., 1941).

In 1924, Congress authorized the construction of the Coolidge Dam across the river, creating the San Carlos Reservoir “for the purpose, first, of providing water for the irrigation of lands allotted to Pima Indians on the Gila River Reservation, Arizona, now without an adequate supply of water, and, second, for the irrigation of such other lands in public or private ownership, as in the opinion of the . . . Secretary [of the…