Colorado's Involvement in Westwide Water Planning

Document: Remarks of Honorable Wayne N. Aspinall before the annual meeting of the Colorado State Grange, October 1, 1966, page 5Arizona project would have to depend upon the apportioned but uncommitted water of the upper basin states for its water supply. If full upper basin rights are developed, the Colorado River would have to be augmented by an additional 2.5 million acre-feet from outside the basin just to assure the frunishing of 7.5 million acre-feet in the lower basin from the mainstream of the Colorado River, as provided in the Supreme Court decision. These facts, combined with a lack of confidence in Interior's reservoir operations, due principally to the emptying of Lake Powell after it had started to fill, are the basis of our position that legislation authorizing additional development in the lower basin should include the following: (1) provisions establishing criteria for operating reservoirs on the river which would protect the Compact rights of Colorado and the other upper basin states, (2) authority for studying ways and means of augnenting the water supplies of the River, not only to permit lower basin deliveries of 7.5 million acre-feet but to meet the future needs of the entire basin, because the longterm solution to the ever-wersening water situation in the Southwest lies only in developing new water supplies, and (3) authorization of those upper basin projects on which planning has been completed in order to put our water to beneficial consumptive use. -5-Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 1,980,586 byte