Samuel P. Goddard Papers

Central Arizona Project

Colorado River Basin Act

In 1965, Goddard testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation on the importance of the Central Arizona Project for Arizona. Goddard's testimony became controversial when members of the subcommittee began to question him regarding potential plans for the importation of water from other western rivers.

Goddard later helped to organize a compromise agreement among several of his fellow state governors to support the bill authorizing the Colorado River Basin Project. In 1966 after a National Conference of Governor's in Los Angeles, California, President Lyndon Johnson flew several of the governors to Washington, D.C., in order to discuss the war in Vietnam. Goddard recounts that while on Air Force One, several of the western governors, including Pat Brown from California, drafted a letter to President Johnson that urged the passage of a compromise piece of water legislation. Congress finally passed Public Law 90-537 in 1968. Johnson signed the Colorado River Basin Act, which included the authorization of the Central Arizona Project.