@downinnadesert: Arizona beat California at the Supreme Court over the Colorado River, then made a major concession to finally get its canal built. The fight went back decades. Arizona refused to ratify the 1922 Colorado River Compact for years, arguing it did not protect the state’s interests enough, especially when it came to the Gila River. By 1952, Arizona took California to the U.S. Supreme Court. Eleven years later, Arizona won a huge part of the case. The Court upheld a Lower Basin split of 4.4 million acre-feet for California, 2.8 million for Arizona and 300,000 for Nevada, and ruled that Arizona’s tributaries, including the Gila, were not counted against its Colorado River allocation. The ruling also protected major tribal water rights, recognizing reserved Colorado River water for several Native reservations. But Arizona still needed one thing: the Central Arizona Project. California opposed the project for years. To get CAP through Congress in 1968, Arizona accepted a lower priority for much of its CAP water during shortages. Construction began in the 1970s. Today, CAP carries Colorado River water roughly 336 miles across Arizona, helping supply Phoenix, Tucson and communities in between. That old compromise still matters. When the Colorado River runs short, Arizona’s CAP supply takes some of the deepest cuts. Arizona won the case. Then it traded priority to get the water here. #ColoradoRiver #CentralArizonaProject #ArizonaHistory #ArizonaWater #DownInnaDesert

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Tuesday 15 September 2026 14:00:00 GMT