ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how Bureau of Reclamation economics was employed to provide support for the project. It examines how the changes made in the project after 1947 sharply reduced the economic benefits farmers were likely to receive. The Central Arizona Project (CAP) Planning Report of December, 1947, reported the total project cost as $738.4 million with $658.1 million as reimbursable. The Bureau began by estimating average ability to pay per acre at the farm headgate. A distribution system cost per acre was subtracted in order to achieve payment capacity at canal side. Conditions of farming had changed since the relatively favorable analysis of 1947. As farm product prices fell and farm input prices rose, farmers were experiencing economic problems. Since firm water allocations to the various irrigation districts have not been made, and firm water charges have not been set, farmers still remain in a guessing game when trying to compare water costs with and without the CAP.
