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Now, if I were writing a current hydrographic report on the Colorado River with this long range drouth story in mind, I think I would sum it up in one sentence---"Don't expect too much from the old Colorado." It's a drouth stricken stream if there ever was one. I've often had to make a comparison between the Colorado River and the Columbia River. The watersheds are almost identical in area and yet the Columbia River furnishes ten times the norm for the Colorado River. The water users in the Northwest boast that they have no controversies over water. Of course they never have controversies because water is plentiful with much to spare. We would all get along well together if there was more of a surplus on the Colorado, but water supply engineers say that we have to take into account that the long pull of the Colorado River could easily be overloaded, and we just mustn't expect too much of the tired, old stream. Mr. Do w d : This drouth imposes no immediate threat to the areas lying below Hoover Dam. No doubt it is a different story on the upper areas and on some of the other tributaries. There still is about 13,000,000 acre feet in Hoover Dam which is about half of the usable capacity. Had we known that this year was going to be as bad as it was I believe there would have been a request made that Hoover Dam be operated in accordance with the terms of the Boulder Canyon Project Act, which was to reServe first for domestic and irrigation use, second to power, which of course would have meant about a 25% cut in the power output of Hoover, and would mean some cut, at least in kilowatts, for this portion of the year in the output of Davis Dam. The planned operation for the future when the volume had reached a point where water was getting short, would be that the release from Hoover annually would be the irrigation and domestic demand, but seasonally it would be in accordance with the power users' wishes, the water to be re-regulated at Davis Dam. In other words, the excess winter release from Hoover would be stored in Davis and would be released from Davis during the summer time when the irrigation demand is greatest. That, of course, has not been done to any great extent. This next spring, if conditions look as bad as they did the last spring, I think there will be a request that the releases from Hoover on an annual basis be reduced to the irrigation and domestic demand which wuld cause a great cut in power. At the present time there's about 5,000 second feet flowing unused into the Gulf of California. This is 5,000 second feet over and above the irrigation and domestic demand which of course is a loss of water. What concerns me more is the long time view of the flow of the Colorado River. At the time the compact was negotiated, the negotiators had in mind that the yield of the Colorado River system, which includes the main stream and all its'tributaries, would be in the neighborhood of 20,000,000 acre - 25 -