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r-- (C) ';"""''''1 '-/ -7') r-'~ -' the project will promote migratory bird and fish habitat and tend to restore the river to its earlier condition. The Rio Grande Compact provides that the state of Colorado shall not be credited with any water delivered from the Closed Basin unless a proportion of sodium ions in such water shall be less than 45 percent of the total positive ions when the total dissolved solids in such water exceeds 350 parts per million. The project is designed to do and will meet these water quality standards. Current Status Advance planning has not been initiated on the project and no funds were included in the President's recommended budget for F.Y. 1974 to initiate such planning. However, because of the great amount of work already done on the project and the long feasibility investigations, very little advance planning is necessary. Construction could start almost immediately if funds were made available. Because of the continued opposition of a small group of people in the San Luis Valley to the project, the state of Colorado independently and in concert with the United States Geological Survey has undertaken and completed an exhaustive research of the possible effect of the project on existing irrigation practices in the Closed Basin. This research, which was conducted over a considerable period of time and included the con- struction of an electric analog model, indicates that the project will have no adverse effect upon existing irrigation practices in the Closed Basin. In addition, the present plan of development provides for construction of the project in stages in order that the effect of each stage can be evaluated. Nevertheless, the witch-hunt on the part of a few people in the valley is still being carried on. There is now pending in the United States Supreme Court a suit filed against Colorado by the states of Texas and New Me~ico alleging that Colorado is in violation of the terms of the Rio Grande Compact. In 1967, the three states and the United States agreed to a stay of proceedings in the pending litigation in order to "afford a reasonable time for the interested parties to demonstrate the feasibility and imminence of an equitable administrative solution. In, the meantime, the United States will explore the matter of an administrative solution in conjunction with the three states." There appears to be only two feasible administrative solutions to the pending litigation. These are either to curtail water uses in -3-