Response Letter on S. 1658 and Central Arizona Project

Letter: From Stewart Udall, to Senator Jackson, April 9, 1964, page 2that confront the people of the Central Arizona area are only one element in a complex of water problems facing the entire Pacific Southwest -- the region that depends in major part on the Lower Colorado River for its basic water supply. It is likewise clear that in and of itself, the Central Arizona project will not solve even Arizona's water problem. The draft of bill submitted herewith is based on the premise that projects to serve any portion of the region must be related to a program to serve the needs of the entire region. The bill includes authorization of the Central Arizona project, as well as the Dixie project (S. 26) and the Southern Nevada Water Supply project (S. 2388), as component parts of a comprehensive attack upon the water supply problems of the Pacific Southwest region. This treatment of the Central Arizona Project is not made by reason of any doubt as to the engineering, economic or financial feasibility of an independent Central Arizona project as set forth in S. 1658. Bureau of Reclamation investigations have demonstrated the feasibility of such an independent project. But the time when the water problems of the Pacific Southwest were suited to a piecemeal approach on the basis of individual projects -- no matter how feasible standing alone --has long since passed. A regional effort is essential. The old quarrels must now be consigned to the archives of history. In their place, today's problems call for constructive water statesmanship. Since January 1963, under my direction, the best resource experts available in my Department -- including the best water planners in the Bureau of Reclamation -- have been at work under instructions to prepare a regional water development plan for the Pacific Southwest designed to encourage united action by the five states of the Lower Colorado Basin. The affected states have submitted their comments and recommendations, as provided by law -- and in recent weeks all of the federal agencies have submitted their comments and recommendations concerning the plan. As an interim report I am submitting the plan, in its current form, to this Committee today. As spokesman for the Administration, I can state that we have bent every effort to develop the framework of a regional plan which would be eminently sound in its conception and which would serve as a vehicle 2Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 1,284,188 byte