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l; .., ~ .~ '.. ''-'u'' signed,' A constJ:uction headquarters has been established in Fort Morgan and lands in the damsite area have already been purchased, Up to this time, almost seven million dollars has been expended from federal funds for project purposes. A further expenditure of approxi- mately two million dollars has been made to further the project from state and local funds, The project was already in a construction status under the new authorization when funds were terminated at the request of the President, pending yet another review of the project. This review has been completed and again demonstrates that the project is both feasi- ble and sound from every rational point of view. The dam safety question has been laid to rest by an independent panel of outstanding engineers and geologists assembled by the Federal government and by a separate study conducted by the State of Colorado through a thoroughly qualified consulting firm. Few projects in the history of reclamation have been so thoroughly and intensively evaluated and re-evaluated as has the Narrows project on the South Platte River in Colorado. It would seem that over thirty years of evaluation should be sufficient. The on, off, on and off again status of the project construction has virtually suspended the lives of many of our citizens, particularly those who reside within the reservoir area. The waters which would become available through the Narrows project are waters which have been allocated to the State of Colorado through an interstate compact with Nebraska and ratified by the United States Congress. The South Platte River Basin is the industrial and population heart of the State of Colorado, Critical water shortages within the basin occur annually through lack of adequate reservoir storage. We are now losing in excess of 200,000 acre-feet of water annually within the basin. In Colorado, we consider this a criminal waste, We are therefore desperate to get this vitally needed projcct underway. To that end, we propose as follo'ws: a. One of the major proposals in the president's announced water policy relates to state cost sharing in Federally constructed projects. A bill prepared by the Administration on this subject contains a section as follows: "Voluntary State financing as described in Section 103 in projects authorized prior to enactment of the Act is authorized and encouraged, particularly \vith respect to assisting Federal author- ities in setting priorities among projects previously authorized but for which construction funds have not been appropriated." We believe that the ex post facto nature of this proposal is qrossly unfair. The Governor and the Colorado General Assembly are strongly opposed to this attempt to re-write the laws of the country by executive fiat. However, in our desperation we are willing to consider state financial participation in the Narrows project, if that is the only way that the project construction status can be reestablished, - 3 -