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0543 currently about four and one-half billion dollars per year. Power sales from reclamation projects now approximate two hundred and fifty million dollars per year. Flood damages prevented by these projects are approxi- mately a hundred million dollars per year. In addition to the monetary values, approximately sixty-five million recreation visitor days are being recorded annually at reclamation projects. About eighteen million people are being served with water supplies derived in whole or in part from reclamation projects. To summarize these statistics, it can be safely stated that the reclamation program in any two year period produces a gross product which exceeds the total federal investment for the past seventy-five years. Despite these impressive statistics, there are still those who argue that reclamation is a poor investment. During the past seventy years, twelve federal reclamation projects have been completed in Colorado. Same of these projects have been completed in recent years. The total federal investment in those twelve projects is approximately two hundred and forty-eight million dollars. Yet the value of crops produced from those projects in 1975 alone was about three hundred and thirty-one million dollars. In short, in a single year these projects are producing a gross return which far exceeds the investment made during the past seventy years. The cumulative direct agricultural production from these projects during their history is about three billion, three hundred and five million dollars. In summary, from agricultural production alone, the contribution to the gross economy has exceeded the investment by over thirteen times. This does not include the millions of dollars paid in taxes. Neither does it include millions of dollars in electrical power revenues produced by the proj- ects nor the value of thousands of visitor days of recreation at the project facilities. If this is a poor investment, than I submit that this country needs more of the same. All the evidence available at this time indicates that this will be a year of severe drought in Colorado. The most productive areas of the state this year will be those that are served by reclamation proj- ects. Those projects are designed to accommodate to drought periods as nearly as this can be done. The scheduled beginning of the con- struction on these projects will be of no use to alleviate the current drought. However, there will be other droughts and, when they occur, these projects will offer the best solution that can be found to such events. The word "drought" may have no real meaning for those who live along the Atlantic seaboard where heavy rainfall normally occurs. But a drought in the West often means financial ruin and other severe personal hardships. The sector of the western economy which is first and most seriously affected is the agricultural industry. Drought is a way of life in the West, but our reclamation projects provide a form of insurance in the only manner possible. Knowing this, we have already invested over six million dollars of state and local funds in the five projects now under attack, in addition to the some $32,000,000 already appropriated by the Congress. Gentlemen, in view of the bewildering and incomprehensible events of the past few weeks, we feel that we have nowhere to turn, except to the United States Congress. We believe that it is the indisputable right and power of Congress to enact laws and to appropriate monies. We are therefore carrying our case to that body which has the ultimate authority to speak on the matters which are the subject of my testimony. -6-