Laserfiche WebLink
<br />stage development in both Basins will require much toil, sweat, tears--- <br />and dollars. <br /> <br />No one needs to tell this group how vital the continued develop- <br />ment of the Colorado River is to the seven basin states and to the nation <br />as a whole. You wouldn't be here today, if you weren't aware of the <br />inestimable value of this river resource. In my opinion, there is <br />nothing that we can do, individually and collectively here, in the basin <br />that is fundamentally more important than to work cooperatively to achieve <br />full development and maturity of this water resource. In this endeavor to <br />develop a great renewable resource in a semi-arid region, you are work- <br />ing not merely for today or for your own self-interest, but for the very <br />future of many generations still unborn. This, as the Bureau's report <br />writers said in 1946, is "their heritage. " <br /> <br />I mentioned some of the problems we have in the basin. And <br />they are problems, and many of us will spend many hours and endure <br />many frustrations in their solution. But they are not the chief problem <br />we have on the Colorado. The chief roadblock to continued development <br />of the Colorado is the lack of unity and cooperation throughout the basin <br />in the development of this common resource. <br /> <br />It was probably unfortunate in a way that it was necessary for <br />the Colorado River Compact Commission to arbitrarily divide the basin <br />into a lower and an upper basin to achieve agreement on the compact pro- <br />posal back in the 1920's. This compromise produced an acceptable com- <br />pact, but it also served to create and to emphasize a division in the basin <br />that does not exist physically. It also served to obscure facts that I be- <br />lieve we all recognize- -that basin-wide planning and development has <br />demonstrated its value and that development of one part of the basin helps <br />the rest of the basin and the nation as a whole. <br /> <br />It is most gratifying to me that this basin-wide organization exists <br />and that, you are meeting here today in united purpose. <br /> <br />We have also seen other signs of a harmonious solution of our pro- <br />blems--notably the cooperation shown in the solution of the reservoir fill- <br />ing problem, and the recently-announced efforts of three lower basin states <br />to work together in evolving a plan for development of a high Bridge Canyon <br />project. <br /> <br />This is our major need today--simply a unity of purpose and a co- <br />operative spirit that will help us solve our problems and get on with the job <br />that is so vital. <br /> <br />- 27 - <br />