![]() ![]() “Without large dams on the rivers to provide flood control and store water for later use during drought years, agricultural success still depended upon the whims of nature,” Zuniga wrote. Yet, despite advances in technology, 19th-century farmers encountered problems similar to those the Hohokam experienced. Sometimes farmers used the prehistoric canals, but usually they built their own following the paths of the ancient ones.” By the 1860s, according to Zuniga, “these settlers began redeveloping the land along the Salt River that the Hohokam once farmed. American settlers entered the region in larger numbers after New Mexico Territory - which included most of modern Arizona - became part of the United States in 1848, drawing farmers, ranchers, and miners (copper mining in particular became a mainstay of the area’s economy). Other Native peoples later lived in the region, including the Pima, Maricopa, and Tohono O’odham. 1400 - no one knows for certain why, but scholars speculate drought and overcultivation of land. Ultimately these works would extend roughly 150 mi. Simple bush dikes and diversion dams controlled water flows enough for the Hohokam to develop an irrigation empire.” Zuniga wrote that this early project comprised “complex systems of ditches dug with wooden sticks and stone axes. 200, the ancient Hohokam people began developing irrigation systems on the Salt River - which would one day flow through the center of early Phoenix. Zuniga’s 2000 Bureau of Reclamation paper, The Central Arizona Project.Īmericans did not invent the idea of irrigating the Sonoran Desert, which stretches across southern Arizona and into Mexico and where summer temperatures can approach 120 F. The project has generated more than $2 trillion in economic value, providing “power generation, flood control, outdoor recreation, sediment control, and fish and wildlife conservation,” according to Jennifer E. The system brings water to approximately 1 million acres of land in the heart of Arizona and helped the state nearly double its population in the roughly 30 years since it was completed in 1993. The CAP transports water from Lake Havasu to the west to points south and east, ending just south of Tucson. ![]() The CAP is a complex system of aqueducts, tunnels, pumping stations, underground siphons, and reservoirs that collectively move more than 1.4 million acre-ft each year roughly 336 mi across the Sonoran Desert. In planning for decades, the CAP provides water to millions of Arizonans and has generated more than $2 trillion in economic value. That water comes from one of the most ambitious public works projects along the Colorado River, the massive $4 billion Central Arizona Project, described on the system’s website as “the most expensive Bureau of Reclamation project ever constructed, and perhaps the most controversial.” Sunny skies and good weather (in non-summer months, at least) may have drawn millions to Arizona’s Sun Corridor, but it is water that has fueled the region’s stunning growth. The same is true for the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas, which are home to roughly 85% of the population of Arizona. The growth of cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas would be impossible without it. The mighty Colorado River supplies potable water to approximately 40 million people in seven U.S. (Photograph courtesy of the Central Arizona Project) Construction on the Central Arizona Project began in 1973 and lasted until 1993. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |