Report on Lower Colorado River Project

Report: United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, "Report on Lower Colorado River Project," Revised Draft, 6/7/63, page 46spring fed lambs for the Easter season, safflower oil low in polyunsaturates, and many others that, because of climate, cannot be grown elsewhere in the Nation or do not have proper market relations, are grown in the Southwest. This type of economy must be maintained. The production of much of the livestock food requirement to meet the dairy industry serving the Los Angeles Metropolitan area is also grown in the inland desert areas. Costs of shipping all these supplies from other more remote areas of the Nation would probably be prohibitive to this industry. As the cities of the Southwest continue to grow, the existing agricultural land will be overrun and new land can be brought into replacement production to maintain constant the specialty type agricultural economy of this area. From studies made by the Bureau of Reclamation in this area, irrigation water has an economic benefit value of $80 per acre-foot. Water developed under this plan that has been assigned for irrigation use is primarily to compensate for the overdraft on ground-water supplies and to firm up existing water supply deficiencies, and would have an economic benefit value of $192,000,000 annually. Municipal and Industrial Benefits of unmeasurable value will result from providing a good quality dependable water supply to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding population conflux. The value of water for human consumption and domestic use is indeterminate, but ordinarily is evaluated as the cost necessary to acquire it from a logical alternative source. Recent studies by recognized authorities have likewise shown that water for industrial use has a value of some 26Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 2,228,496 byte