Department of Water Resources Views on Colorado River Legislation

Document: Department of Water Resources Views on Colorado River Legislation, William R. Gianelli, Jan 11, 1967[Jan 11, 1967] DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES VIEWS ON COLORADO RIVER LEGISLATION* By William R. Gianelli, Director Department of Water Resources The Resources Agency State of California I am keenly aware of the vital significance of Colorado River legislation to water development throughout California. Last year our State found substantial harmony with the other six states of the Colorado River Basin, hammered out a common goal, and drafted legislation to accomplish it. This legislation was reported out by the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee with a comfortable margin. Because a number of factors combined to prevent the bill from reaching the House floor, some are willing to scrap the coordinated approach. I can appreciate why some leaders, particularly those in Arizona, show signs of impatience after years of frustration, but there is no cause, as far as I can see, for California to do anything but build on the blocks carefully laid last year. Our objective should be to widen support for a sound western water program, not to narrow it as some proposals seem to indicate. The Colorado River Basin is faced with a permanent water shortage. There are two basic legislative approaches available: 1. We can seek to allocate shortages in a limited Central Arizona Project bill in such a way as to protect existing water users. California's protection would be limited to 4.4 million acre-feet per annum. 2. We can protect existing water users, including those in California, from the adverse effects of further development of the waters of the Colorado by setting in motion a program designed to augment the inadequate supplies of the Colorado River. The only arguable reason for not following the second approach is that the package is too big and therefore not marketable. It will not be easy to sell, but in my view the second approach will not be nearly so likely to generate endless controversy as the first approach. There has been more real progress toward a longrange solution to Colorado River Basin water problems in the last two years, since the states have been working together, than was achieved during the preceding forty years. The second approach has the added advantage, an advantage of inestimable value, of leaving California in the most reasonable posture in the eyes of other states that it is practicable for California to occupy. I concur with what I understand to be the position of the Colorado River Board that we should start where we left off in the last Congress in negotiating Colorado River legislation. Furthermore, I believe that we must make every effort to maintain statewide unity on this matter. *Statement presented before joint meeting of California Advisory Committee on Western States Water Planning and Colorado River Board of California in Sacramento, California, on January 11, 1967.Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 1,513,436 byte