Marble Canyon Dam States Geological Survey, which designated sites for "an unbroken string of [hydroelectric] dams from the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming to the last canyons of the Colorado River along the California/Arizona border". Although the Bureau of Reclamation expressed interest at this time in developing hydroelectric generation at the Marble site, these plans were postponed in favor of building the Hoover Dam, which would provide a much greater storage capacity for irrigation and flood control. However, once Hoover was completed the Bureau once again set its sights on the Grand Canyon, which has the greatest hydroelectric potential of any canyon in
Colorado River basin. Phoenix in Arizona and Las Vegas in Nevada are the largest metropolitan areas in the watershed. Population densities are also high along the lower Colorado River below Davis Dam, which includes Bullhead City, Lake Havasu City, and Yuma. Other significant population centers in the basin include Tucson, Arizona; St. George, Utah; and Grand Junction, Colorado. Colorado River basin states are among the fastest-growing in the U.S.; the population of Nevada alone increased by about 66 percent between 1990 and 2000 as Arizona grew by some 40 percent. The Colorado River basin shares drainage boundaries with many other major watersheds