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WELCOMING REMARKS i BV The HONORABLE PAUL LAXA~ T, Governor of Nevada BEFORE i The Colorado River Water Users Asso:ciation Annual Meeting Las Vegas, Nevada, DecBll1ber 12, 1968 PRESENTEO BY ROBERTROBERTSON Executive Admini~trator Governor's Office . , I am delighted to be with all of you this morning at this, the opening session of the twenty- fifth annual meeting of the Colorado River Water Use'is Association. I take great pleasure in extend- ing to all of you a cordial welcome from the Governor and the extension of his best wishes that this will indeed be a productive meeting. The Governor extends his apologies to all of you for not being able to be with you in person this morning. This Silver Anniversary meeting is a fine examjJle of the common bond of the Colorado River which annually brings together this group of interested citizens and experts in the field of water. The specific bond of the Colorado River and its problems perhaps unites the feelings of this group as much as any other resource group in the Southwest. ! It really goes without saying that the economic impact of the Colorado River on the South- west is obviously very tremendous, Without the Colorado River the Southwest just would not have developed as it has. In Nevada the economic impact of the Colorado River was really brought to impressive stature with the construction of Hoover Dam. It was Hoover Dam which caused the creation of Boulder City and of Henderson which otherwise would not have existed. Las Vegas and its immediate surrounding area was in existence on a small scale but certainly would not have flourished as we now see it with- out the impact of this tremendous engineering achievement. Of perhaps equal impact on Southern Nevada is the Southern Nevada Water Project which is now under construction. Through this project Southern Nevada will be in a position to utilize fully its allocated share in the Colorado River water and it is assured of sufficient water to provide for growth to approximately the turn of the century. Another important and very impressive economic influence of the Colorado River is the Southern California Edison steam-generation plant now under construction on the Nevada side of the river below Davis Dam, This$200 million facility will produce more power by 1971,1 am informed, than Hoover Dam now produces, Its impact on the taX base of Clark County will be very significant, Its contribution to the economic welfare of Nevada and of the Southwest through the .production of power will be very great, This is being accomplished by utilizing that part of Nevada's share of the Colorado River which otherwise would pass on down the river unused by the State until sometime in the future, All of the uses of the river and its water as we now know it are spoken of in terms of future economi:c impact but we always have a terminal date ,attached to them, We foresee the time when we will not have enough water remaining in the river for 'additional development, This, of course, means we must look for the alternate sources, We all have tl).e same common interests in this regard. And I think }Ye all look with anticipation on further progress in this area of finding more water. One of the significant features of our full utilization of the river is the economic use and reuse of all of the water and the weighing of the impact of future developments on the quality of the water and its usefulness, for our intended purposes. This should give us pause for consideration of some mechanism by which we can evaluate among ourselves what we think is best for the Southwest, This forum of the Colorado River Water Users Association:is certainly valuable in providing a means for us to have a common understanding of each others' problems and an expression of our interest and con- ~ / .. -3-