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RELEASE OF COLORADO RIVER WATER 21 Senator CARROLL. I thank the Senator. Senator HICKEY. I wonder if the Senator will yield for a question. Senator MOSS. I will be glad to yield to the Senator. Senator HICKEY. Are you aware, Mr. Commissioner, that each of the upper basin States, all of which are affected by efforts to alleviate the salinity condition in Mexico, has made its position preeminently clear, as the chairman indicated in his initial statement Each State has taken the position that the Colorado River compact and the Mexican Water Treaty do not place any obligation upon either the United States or the individual States to in anyway provide Mexico with a particular quality of water Mr. DOMINY. Yes; I understand that to be the position of the upper basin States as well as the lower basin States. Senator ANDERSON. Is it not the position of the Commissioner of Reclamation Mr. DOMINY. I also understand it to be the position of the Commissioner of Reclamation and the Department of Interior. And so far as I know, the Department of State concurs. Secretary UDALL. This is a very delicate problem. Of course, when you have a neighboring people that have traditionally been friendly, and have traditionally had relationships with this country that we want to preserve, you do not simply stand on legal positions. This is the reason the study is being made. This is the reason we may come up with a solution that we think will be good for the States and will be good for the Government and be good for our relations with Mexico. This is what we are studying, looking at the present time. If we stand rigidly on some legal position, it would not give us much room to work creatively in terms of working along toward a solution to the problem. Senator ANDERSON. I do want to say that Senator Hayden has given me a memorandum, based on his knowledge of what took place in the Senate. An absolute guarantee was made that in no way would the signing of a Mexican treaty involve any additional water of any kind or description. As you undoubtedly recall, there was a move on some years ago to try to buy back from Mexico this million and a half acre-feet. It is regrettable we did not buy it back. But unfortunately, we had some Americans who had acquired land in Mexico and were greatly interested in its development. We have done well by them. We have probably done better by them than by the citizens of Mexico. But in any event, the statement was made over and over again, and language written in just as clearly as it could be, that never at any time would the question of the character of the water enter into it. Mexico knows that and has agreed to that. They have agreed to make no claim whatever in this regard. That is what I am trying to say, that the answer to Senator Moss is that this is for flushing only, not in any way connected with the problem of dilution. Secretary UDALL. Simply by timing our flushing operations, we happily can help out on an existing problem. Senator Moss. I wanted to ask a question or two along the line the chairman brought up, about the storage in Lake Mead, the indication that there might be some surplus water stored there now, andEpson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 1,390,371 byte