Colorado River Storage Project

Document: Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, Report No. 128, page 14, March 30, 1955 (thermofax)14 COLORADO RIVER STORAOE PROJECT The entire cost of the power and municipal water features will be returned to the United States Treasury with interest not only on the capital investment but also with interest according during their construction. Interest would be computed at the going rate for longterm Treasury obligations. The irrigation costs do not bear interest pursuant to the 50-year-old policy of the reclamation law. The Fedoral Government has recognized that the development of irrigated lands stabilizes the agricultural economy and is a good public investment. Section 3 of the bill, relating to water conservancy districts takes into account the indirect benefits that will accrue to the general areas served by these projects. Indirect beneficiaris in the service areas of these projects would thereby aid in the repayment of irrigation costs. The irrigation farmers would be ass (??), according to their ability to pay over a 50-year period, and the balance of the costs allocated to irrigation would be repaid by power revenues Safeguards are contaned in the bill to obviate intiation of construction of participating projects prior to a thorough review of their economic justification. The committee concurs in the view expressed by the Civil Defense Administrator, that the Colorado River storage project will be an important factor in an industrial and buman dispersal program in the event of a national emergency. This vital factor gives added nation wide importance to this development, in addition to broadening the Federal tax base, increasing purchasing power, and thereby providing an expanding home market for the products of American manufacturing and other enterprises. The committee's position on power marketing of the project is that the area to be served shall be governed only by economical transmission distance direct or through interconnections with other plants either in the Upper or Lower Basin This policy is necessary to the economic and financial health of the project This policy in the committee's opinion accords with established practice and policies of reclamation power operations. The committee intends that full equality of treatment be accorded to both Upper and Lower Basin power customers Established preferences and sound business principles in accordance with existing reclamation law are intended to be applied in the marketing of power from the project, and it is not intended that Lower Basin customers should be discriminated against in any respect. The principal amendments recommended are for the purpose of clarification only and relate, first, to the inclusion of 19 additional participating projects in Colorado and Wyoming which can be constructed only after submittal of feasibility reports, and approval and authorization by the Congress. Section 2 is revised to declare that it is not the intention of Congress by authorizing only certain designated projects at this time to prelude future comprehensive water resource developments is in the Upper Basin. A provision is included for consutation by the Secretary of the Interior with an Advisory Committee in comection with the operation of works in the Colorado River. Section 12 of the bill would grant consent to suits against the United States in the Supreme Court by States in the Colorado River Basin to enforce the provisions of specifically named compacts,Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 24 bit, 1,701,009 byte