Summary of the Pacific Southwest Water Plan

Document: Draft of the "Summary of the Pacific Southwest Water Plan", August 1963 (carbon copy) page 24. Arizona urgently needs the waters to which it recently acquired the right to divert from the Colorado River under the Supreme Court decision. Otherwise it will face a slowly withering economy as the ground water bank account shrinks. Southern California, as a result of the Supreme Court decision, will have to curtail its Colorado River diversions and will face the same diminishing water supply problem that Arizona faces today. Western New Mexico needs upstream water conservation and control facilities to expand its historically water-restricted economy. Southern Nevada requires additional water to provide for its phenomenal population growth. Southern Utah needs water conservation and control facilities to evercome sessp(??) seasonal shortages of surface water. 5. The precepts under which the Department of the Interior has historically acted have never encouraged the development of one ares to the detriment of another. The diminishing of an existing economy, or the retarded development of another, carries nationwide implications. In the Pacific Southwest, defined for the purposes of this study as portion s of each of the above five states--each dependent to some extent on the Colorado River--it is incumbent upon the Secretary of the Interior in any plan of regional water development to preserve, protect and promote the economy and interests of all the affected states. All foreseeable needs of exporting areas will be met before any water is exported. 6. The greatest future water requirements of the region will be for municipal and Industrial uses, caused by the ction's fastest rate of population growth. Other importent needs are for irrigation, power and flood control. The development plans presented in this report include water supplies for recreation, fish and wildlife, and 2Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 3,207,757 byte