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require expenditure of a little over $11 million. This work princi- pally includes the Wellton-Mohawk and South Gila Valley drainage pro- grams and installation of generating Unit N ~8 in the Hoover Power- plant. , On the Wellton-Mohawk Division of the Gila Project near Yuma, Arizona, the Bureau is currently constructi~g about 63 miles of con- veyance channel and a groundwater pumping] network to provide drain- age for the 75,000 acre division. The overall drainage program is scheduled to be completed in fiscal year 1966, In the South Gila Valley, the Bureaujrecently awarded a con- tract for drilling 4 deep drainage wells and f,vill soon let a contract for a conveyance channel from the wells to the Colorado River. I , ! During the 11-year period from 1949 to 1960, the Bureau of Reclamation has been engaged in the channeHzation of the Colorado River through the Mohave Valley, between Topock" Arizona and Big Bend below Davis Dam, The work has involved the excavation of 32 miles of river channel and has confined the river within a rectified channel averaging 450 feet in width, This is in contirast to the previous or natural condition of the river where it sprea:d toas much as half a mile wide for a large part of the length of 1{ohave Valley. , With the completion of the dredging through Mohave Valley, the benefits of improved river regulation, sediment reduction and salvage of water previously lost to evaporation, can' now be expected to accrue. Noticeable reduction in sediment being carried by the river in this area has already become apparent. The reducti~n in water lost to evapora- tion will require some time to evaluate, butj it is assured that at least 131,000 acre feet per yearinthis area will!now be saved by the chan- nelization. The program presently underway viJitually completes a $500 million Reclamation development program ir the Colorado River Basin from Hoover Dam downstream. The work J:).as extended over the last half century, but is concentrated in the per~od since the construction of , Hoover Dam got underway. i A comparable development of the upper Colorado River Basin did not get underway to any considerable extent:until after enactment of the Colorado River Storage ProjeCt Act in 1956f Work is well underway or is due to start before this fiscal year ends Qn all four of the presently authorized main-stem storage units--Glen <;;anyon, Flaming Gorge, Navajo, and Curecanti, on the transmission divisionl- -and on six, of the 11 author- - 18 -