ABSTRACT
The history of the Central Arizona Project spans decades and is marked by significant changes in the project over time. The Central Arizona Project (CAP) has long been important in Arizona's political and agricultural affairs. Economic analysis indicated that agricultural interests had much to gain from the Senate bill debated in the 1947 hearings. The real push for tying construction of the CAP to groundwater conservation in Arizona came not from the state leaders interested in "rescuing" agriculture or from Congressional leaders concerned about Arizona's future, but rather from the Department of the Interior. The fifteen years between 1947 and 1963 showed little change in the design and purposes of the CAP. The power of the Secretary of the Interior to make the final decisions about the allocation of CAP water to the various users had become a matter of great concern by 1980. The converging sequence of events related to the CAP has profound implications for the state's farmers.
