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<br />JJH 76 <br /> <br />-11- <br /> <br />anywhere wi thin the basins of the ArloLnsas and' bite rivers would jeopardize <br />every water right on the Arkansas. If water is so badly needed for navigation <br />that it justifies the oonstruotion of a great dam. then that additional water <br />would oome from just one plaoe--and with an Aot of COngress authorizing its use <br />for navigation under the Commeroe Clause of the Constitution. with no right of <br />review by the oourts, irrigators would see their headgates olosed while their <br />orops dried up and burned. <br /> <br />At a meeting in late Ootober the people of seventeen semi-arid western states <br />through their offioial representatiVes announoed a deolaration of rights whioh <br />will live as long as irrigation praotioes are followed in the West and Federal <br />agenoies do not substitute same new authority over our oountry. <br /> <br />In that deolaration it was said that the oontrol. regulation. and utilization <br />of water in the semi-arid states plaoe the highest us'es of water for danestio <br />oonsumption and grCW/ing oropsl On projeots designed to promote multiple uses of <br />water. domestio and irrigation needs are paramount to hydroeleotrio energy pro~ <br />duotion. <br /> <br />And finally it was announoed that attempted regulation under the Commeroe <br />Clause of the United States Constitution to maintain navigable oapaoity and to <br />regulate floods an the lower reaohes of rivers having their origin in arid regions <br />is subjeot tOll. m/l.ximUlJl use of suoh WR.ter fJor irrigati on purposes. This is the <br />studied oonolusion of the men who irrigate lands in the West~ <br /> <br />In view of the introduotion of Senate Bill No. 1519 immediately after that <br />meeting. it may be seen tl-At irrigators sensed .the' danger.. <br /> <br />There is no reason why legislatian to proteot the peop~e on the lower rivers <br />should strangle and hinder those who reolaimed the lands and built their hanes <br />and are now engaged in feeding a large part of a nation.. The flow of this water <br />into the lCW/er seotions would merely add to the flood menaoe. It would be ip.suf- <br />fioient to materially aid navigation. <br />, <br /> <br />On Monday of this week the Supreme Court of the United States ended liti- <br />gation whioh has oontinued for more than forty Years between the states of Kansas <br />and ColOrado over the ri gilt to use the water of this same stream whioh is _de <br />the objeotive of'Senate Bill 1519. That deoision reoognizes the right of the <br />states to distribute and oontrol the use of the water in the semi~arid ~est. <br />That deoision oonstitutes a triumph fo~ western irrigation interests~ <br /> <br />But the rejoioing over that deoision will be shortlived when this bill and <br />its possible objeotives are analyzed. Under the Commeroe Clause of the Consti- <br />tution, aotion by Congress would probably nullify all the benefits derived from <br />'the oourt's statement. <br /> <br />Through a hundred years the Congress had not seen fit to legislate direotly <br />with respeot to these questions under that power. Throughout all this time the <br />sta.tes have oontended over the division of the meager flow of western streams <br />and interpretations of law have bsen annoWloed whioh reoognized these rights <br />and have denied the olaims of Federal agenoies to the ownership and oontrol of <br />western river flows. Let it be understood now that we shall aIways' oontend that <br />