Secretary Udall Supports Authorization

Document: United States Department of the Interior news release, "Secretary Udall supports authorization of comprehensive project package to meet long-range water needs of the lower Colorado River Basin," May 19, 1965, page 1UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT of the INTERIOR *************************news release OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY DeWitt - 343-4662 For Release MAY 19, 1965 SECRETARY UDALL SUPPORTS AUTHORIZATION OF COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT PACKAGE TO MEET LONG-RANGE WATER NEEDS OF THE LOWER COLORADO RIVER BASIN In a report to the House Interior Committee, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has enthusiastically recommended enactment of legislation to authorize the Lower Colorado River Basin Project, consisting of a package of comprehensive water resource developments, programs and conservation measures to alleviate the existing grave water shortages in the Pacific Southwest, and to make possible water supplies adequate for the future throughout the entire Colorado River Basin, Upper as well as Lower. On May 10, the Bureau of the Budget had submitted its own, generally favorable report on the legislation. "I have high hopes that this comprehesive Lower Colorado River legislation can be enacted by Congress this year," Secretary Udall said. "It is soundly conceived, and the Reclamation developments it contains--including the Central Arizona Unit--are among the most vitally needed in many years. This many-faceted project can assure the continued vitality of the great sun country of our far southwest, where the economic future of the fastest-growing cities in our Nation--Las Vegas, Phoenix, and the metropolitan complex along the southern California coast--is being seriously jeopardized by the ever-worsening specter of water shortages." "This legislation contains many of the specifics, and goes far towards achieving the major objectives, of our proposed Pacific Southwest Water Plan of last year," Secretary Udall said, "but there is one transcendent difference: this new legislative proposal embodies a meeting of minds between Arizona and California on an acceptable guarantee for the protection of existing water uses. Now that these two States have resolved their differences, the lower Basin can throw its united support at last behind this comprehesive program for coming to grips with the problem of assuring sufficient water supplies for the Pacific Southwest."Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 24 bit, 2,376,411 byte