Summary of the Pacific Southwest Water Plan

Document: "Summary of Pacific Southwest Water Plan", August 1964 page 5RECOMMENDATIONS After a 12-year moratorium on action, Congress should be asked to authorize the initial phase of a self-liquidating water resources development program for the Pacific Southwest region. To assist in repaying the costs of the initial phase of projects authorized, and to provide funds for future water development programs, Congress should be asked to establish a Pacific Southwest Development Fund. Construction costs and interest during construction would be paid out of this fund. Surplus revenues from water and power sales would flow into the Fund. Power revenues to aid water development programs in the region from Hoover and Parker-Davis Dams would also begin accruing immediately after the termination of the 50-year payout of these two projects. Expenditures from the Fund would be made only under the authority and the direction of the Congress. The elements in the initial phase plan should include the following: a. Bridge Canyon and Marble Canyon Dams and Powerplants on the main stream of the Colorado River, including transmission and appurtenant facilities; b. Enlargement of the California State Water Project aqueduct; c. The Central Arizona Project; d. Authorization of a large desalting plant on the seacoast in southern California and intensified studies under the Anderson-Aspinall Act on the feasibility of more such plants; e. The Southern Nevada Water Supply Project, first stage, to provide up to 90,000 acre-feet annually by 1968 for the growing Boulder City, Henderson, and Las Vegas areas by pumping from Lake Mead to the service areas; f. The Dixie Project in southwestern Utah to provide about 60,000 acre-feet annually, starting in 1970, for irrigation and municipal and industrial purposes; g. The Hooker Dam Project in New Mexico (a unit of the Central Arizona Project), with completion by 1974, to control and regulate erratic storm and winter season runoff, to stabilize flows for downstream agricultural purposes, and for municipal and industrial uses in the Silver City and Tyrone areas; 5Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 2,272,935 byte