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<br />that sand down to and below Imperial Dam will be met by occasional releases <br />from Boulder Dam or by vlater that comes from flash floods. So there will <br />be no demand of 100,000 acre-feet on Lake Mcad; it will not be automatically <br />available for meeting treaty requirements as assumed. <br />"Senator McFARlAND. So you mark out desilting? <br />"Mr. ELDER. It wouid be very irregular. It would not meet treaty <br />requirements. The very nature of moving sands requires them to go down <br />in surges, so unless very careful arrangementS have been made, the canal <br />would be full. because you could not deprive farmers of water long enough. <br />So it does not seem pracUcal to operate Mexican canals or the Imperial <br />Dam, for that matter, in such a way as to make any of that infrequent de- <br />sanding water available to meet treaty requirements." <br /> <br />Mr. Elder, at pages 497 and 498, had this lO say regarding the water supply of <br /> <br />the Colorado River and the requirements for storage to equate the flow to permit the <br /> <br />use of average flows: <br /> <br />"Mr. ELDER. Accepting the Colorado River run-off measurements <br />as recorded--they were discussed in some detail yesterday--the proof <br />is conclusive that prior to tl1G construction of Boulder Dam the summer <br />irrigation season flow of the Colorado River was seriously over-appro- <br />priated. This is shown by numerous seasons of heavy crop loss in the <br />past in the Imperial Valley, particularly the year 1934, just before the <br />Boulder Dam storage became available. <br />"If Boulder Dam had never been built--that is, in the absence of <br />Lake Mead storage regulation--not even the annual quantity of 750,000 <br />acre-feet could now be safely guaranteed to kiexico. For in about half <br />of the last 30 years, severe to prohibitive invasion of long-established <br />appropriation and vestcd natural flow water rights in the United States <br />would have been required to fulfill such a guaranty. <br />"Like most water questions, this treaty, I think, is really an <br />argument about prioritics rather than mere quantities of water. We <br />were first given long-period average flows at this hearing. That was <br />justified by the statement that Boulder Dam had equated the flow of <br />the river and that, therefore, those long'-range, long- period averages <br />had full significance. The fact is that Boulder Dam does not more <br />than begin to equate the flow of the Colorado River. Detailed studies <br />show that nearly 60,000,000 acre-feet of active storage will be neces- <br />sary to fully equate thc Colorado River. Many additional dams and <br />reservoirs will be buil't in the basm or are planned for the basin over <br />the years, and ultimawly, of course, the river w!ll be approximately <br />equated. But the 16,000,000 to 18,000,000 acre-feet capacity that <br />is available at Boulder Dal71 for active regulation of the river, in addition <br /> <br />-35- <br />