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SUMMARY The Pacific Southwest is the Nation's fastest growing and driest region. Its present population of 11 million is expected to triple in the next 40 years. After the people themselves, water is its most precious resource. Water supplies within the region are inadequate to sustain the development that already exists. They cannot, under any circumstances, provide for future growth. Further, ground-water supplies are being overdrafted at an alarming rate. Unless additional water is made available, the economy of the region will decline, with serious consequences not only to the immediate region, but to the Nation. How, as a Nation, we cope with this water crisis will be a severe test of our democratic processes. The water needs of the entire region, both present and future, can be met, and the necessary projects can pay their own way within the traditional payout period for water projects. The California State Water Project already indicates what can be accomplished by State initiative, and any future water plans for the region should be fully integrated with such State plans, for it will take a concerted effort of Federal, State, and local agencies--as well as the advantages of the regional approach--to adequately meet the water needs of the entire region. This report is an attempt to bring some of the elements of long-range planning into focus. The Supreme Court's eventual decree in the case Arizona v. California, et al., will not increase the water supply of the area. It will, however, if it remains substantially unchanged, resolve the entitlements of the several States to Colorado River water in the lower basin so long as the main stream supply available for consumptive use is at least 7.5 million acre-feet. The Court did not, however, define the entitlements of the separate States in the event of a lesser supply than 7.5 million acre-feet. Arizona urgently needs more water, without which it will face a slowly withering economy as the ground-water bank account shrinks. Southern California, as a result of the Supreme Court opinion, will have to curtail its Colorado River diversions. Western New Mexico needs upstream water conservation and control facilities to expand its historically water-restricted economy. Southern Nevada requires additional water to provide for its phenomenal population growth. Southern Utah needs water conservation and control facilities to overcome seasonal shortages of surface water. 1Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 14,157,824 byte