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remammg stations can be classified. If they are not project stations they automatically fall into the secondary station status. From that point on the study will become more and more complex at the merits of various locations, their relative importance in the overall picture, the areal coverage, the dual purpose of some stations, all begin to affect. the final analysis. In these preliminary and early stages of study, we have by-passed the thorny problem of financing the program, because we must first know what we need and them custom tailor OUl' station elements to the size of our finances. Our efforts are an attempt to squarely face the fact that the amount of work to be done far exceeds that which we will be able to do with the funds that are likely to be available for the more and more data that are needed right now. REPORT ON ACTIVITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Harold B. Elmendorf Watershed Planning Specialist Soil Conservation Service, Albuquerque, New Mexico This eleventh annual conference of the Colorado River Water Users' Association is most timely, for it permits the introduction and brief explanation of some new legislation that should interest you water-minded people intensely. This Act only became effective on August 4, 1954 and is known as Public Law 566. This Act affirms the national objectives in upstream flood prevention and in improving the condition of our watersheds. It also states that the public interest justified the Federal Government's assisting local groups in obtaining these results. The new Act is intended to establish a continuing program aimed at alleviating. local floodwater and sediment problems which originate on small watersheds through partnership activities by local organizations and the State and Federal Governments. This is to be done by well- rounded programs of sound land use, improvement of the land and plant cover to provide the best practical watershed conditions, and small water-retarding and sediment-contr")l structures of various kinds to deal with surplus storm runoff and sediment. The Congress confined this program to the field of small watersheds where it does not conflict with functions of agencies responsible for large construction. Projects are limited to areas not to exceed 250,000 acres and a single storage structure of 5,000 acre feet or less. In order that the program may be controlled at a local level, the Act provides that a small watershed project can be initiated only by an application from a local organization having authority under state law to carry out. - 33 -