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SUMMARY The Pacific Southwest is the fastest growing and the most arid in the Nation. Its present population of 11 million is expected to triple in the next 40 years. After the people themselves, water is the most vital resource. Surface-water supplies are not adequate to permanently sustain the existing development, and ground-water resources are being overdrafted at an alarming rate. These waters alone cannot provide for future growth. Additional water must be made available to forestall an economic decline with serious consequences not only to the Southwest, but ultimately to the Nation as a whole. The water crisis must be met head-on and resolved with the same far-sighted action that has prevailed throughout the Nation's history. The water needs of the Southwest can be met and the necessary projects can be implemented within the framework of a comprehensive plan that fulfills all statutory requirements. In the traditional Reclamation pattern, the project can pay its own way. The California State Water Project points the way in which a determined people can unite toward solving a common problem. This plan and any future plans should be fully integrated and coordinated with all such State plans, for it will take a concerted effort by all agencies and people, disregarding State and regional boundaries and moving together, to develop and supply the water resources required and permit the Southwest to contribute its share to the future well-being of the Nation. 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, resolve the entitlements of the several States to Colorado River water in the lower basin so long as the mainstream 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. Moreover, it is estimated that by 1974, or within 10 short years, there may not be 7.5 million acre-feet in the Colorado River to divide among the States of Arizona, California, and Nevada. Eventually the deficiency below 7.5 million acre-feet may reach 2.0 million acre-feet or more. All States of the Pacific Southwest face ever-mounting water supply problems. 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 eventually have to curtail its Colorado River diversions. Western New Mexico needs upstream water conservation and control facilities to expand its historically water-restricted 1Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 14,190,592 byte