Imperial Valley press., 1930-10-06
IS
FILED BY
ARIZONA
Asks For Injunction For
Enjoining Construction
Of Boulder Dam.
WILBUR DEFENDANT
Secretary Of Interior Is
Named With Six States
In Colorado Basin.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (UP)-The
state of Arizona asked the supreme
court today to enjoin construction
work on the Boulder Canyon Dam,
the southwest S great irrigation and
power project in the Colorado river.
A suit asking permission neces-
sary for one state to begin action
against another was handed up sooa
after court convened ror the fail
session by Attorney General x.
Berry Peterson of Phoenix. Accom-
panying the request was a copy OF
the complaint.
Defendants in the action are the
states Of California. Nevada, Utah,
New Mexico, Colorado and Wyo-
ming and Interior Secretary Ray
Lyman Wilbur who is also described
as ga citizen of Californian
Both the Santa Fe compact, to
whcih the defendant states are
signcrs but which Arizona s legis-
lators refuse to ratify, and the
Swing johnson bill the congression-
al legisla ton which authorized the
work, are attacked as unconstitu-
tional.
Citing this claim, an injunrtion
permanently restraining the defend
ants from carrying out the project
is asked. No request is made for u
temporary injunction to halt tie
work pending determination of
the case.
This omission was intentional in
spite of the fact that the . 'origins y
cases of which this is one, some
times pend in the court for many
wears. 1t was explained that be-
cause of the nature of the suit it
would be likely to receive an early
adjudication.
Attacks Compact
Arizona ATTACKS the Santa Fc
compact on several grounds. One is
the apportonment equally of the
Colorado's waters between the up
per and lower basins Under the
compact each gets 100000 acre
feet of water. In the lower basin,
whore Arizona is situated, $500, COO
acre feet have already been appro-
priated. leaving only 100000 for
future development. The upper ba-
sin now uses only 100000 acre
feet, it is claimed, leaving it 5,000,-
0G0 for future use.
This last amount should be avail
able to Arizona if needed in the f,i-
ture, the complaint states.
Further fault is found in the fact
that 5000 900 acre feet are left I'M
apportioncd and withdrawn from APP
preparation.
The congressional legislation 10
attacked as in excess of its powers
of congress because it deprives The
state of sovereign jurisdiction and
control of its waters and other nat
ural resources, and vests them III
the United States.
Claims Discrimination
It further attempts to force tho
state to accept the Santa Fe COM
pact without her approval and at
tomptS to deprive the state and her
citizens of The right to appropriate
about S,HO0,0o0 acre feet of water,
the complaint charges.
The act is then criticized as I'M
constitutional in that it permits
Secretary Wilbur to engage in The
sale of water and power produced
by Arizona 5 resources, to build a
dam for the storage of waters be
longing to the state which can only
be recovered by her citizens by pur-
chase. and in that it Disseminated
against Arizona in favor Of Califor'
mia.
Claims of the act that the pur.
pose of the project is to improve
navigation and reclamation OF pub
lie lands are described as "a nero
subterfugc and false pretenSo . aui
tho activities of the interior sccrc'
tarv in carrying out the project a5
a violation of the states rights.